Alvares Correa Curacao

THE ALVARES CORREA FAMILIES
OF CURACAO AND BRAZIL
A GENEALOGICAL STUDY
BY
H . M. ALVARES CORREA
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INfRODUCTION
This publication surely needs more an apology than an introduction, because
the writing of a genealogy in modern times must appear to many as a strange
anachronism, which can hardly be defended.
With heraldry as dead as alchemy, one may well ask why we have tried to
contribute to the revival of the related science of genealogy. which though not
quite as dead as heraldry, is certainly moribund. If history is "bunk", as Henry
Ford once said, the history of a particular family is certainly of no consequence whatever, and to spend time in writing it up must be a worthless undertaking.
With these extreme views we do not agree. The desire to know the past is a
sign of civilisation. As mankind, after hav ing learnt to read and write, has set
itself to describe its history, so the families of men have understandably had
the same desire, as they developped. Only animals do not ask the name of
their parents and never will. To know one's own background is satisfying a
natural curiosity.
In our particular case, one wonders how a family that always lived in Curacoa
and thus acquired the Dutch n ation ality, came to settle on the island. Did its
members come directly from Portugal or did they come from F landers or
Holland? Did they emigrate immediately to C uracoa or did they first settle in
Brazil? Is it possible to trace the family in Portugal, or perhaps in Spain , or
Italy, or France, or England? And how are the presently living members of the
family connected? All these questions crop up naturally and beg an answer.
At the outset, the task we set ourselves was not difficult to carry out. Since
during three centur ies the family stayed on the same small island of Curacoa,
whose archives are well preser ved since the beginning of the 18th century, it
was comparatively easy to set up a family tree from I 700 until present. Great
difficulties were. however, encountered when we tried to work further backward. T his meant that we had to peruse the archives of the City of Amsterdam, w hich are of course considerably larger than those of Curacoa, and that
we had to find the occasion to v isit Italy, Spain and Portugal.
The following pages are the result of the research we pursued in a span of
30 years - with long intervals caused by the war or lack of spare time and w hich we wish to publish now, allthough the work is not finished
as it never can be, because it is n ecessary once in a while to pause, to stop
going forward and to take stock of the distance covered.
This introduction cannot be closed without tendp·ii_i_g ou; warmest thanks to
our late friend J.M.L. Maduro of Curacoa, without___wh<>se preparatory work
this publication might never have been written. For many years, Mr. Maduro
patiently perused in the Hague the archives of the West India Company.
When this enormous task was completed, he handed to us a great amount of
data and even a first sketch of the family tree. For this pioneer's work our
gratitude is but a small compensation.
We are also much indebted to the work of Mr. I. S . Emanuel, w ho in his
recently published work on the old Cemetry in Curacoa gives a considerable
amount of information which was of great of value to us.
In this connection we would like to appeal to those religious a nd lay authorities
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w ho are in charge of this venerable cemetry to take measures for the preservation of the tombstones it conta ins. Some, carved in white marble, are real
treasures of religious art, but th e stones are continuously attacked by the fumes
of the neighbouring oil refinery which have caused in the last 40 years
considerable damage. In the interest of history and religious art, they should
not be a llowed to fall into utter decay.
P aris, June 1965
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PART I
THE FAMILY ALVARES CORREA OF CURACAO
The family Alvares Correa, whose members are at present scattered all ov er
the world, have lived for nearly three centuries on the island of Curacoa
(Nether lands Antilles). It is true that from the first day of their settlement
onward certain members have gone to neighbouring -countries for economic
reasons. Howev er, the majority of the family remained - until recently - in
Curacoa and prospered or suffered together with the island, which accordingly
is considered by them as their native country .
By tradition the Alvares Correas are Marranos ( also called "Christaos novos"
or "New Chris tians") i.e. Jews who publicly professed the Catholic religion
but secretly followed the Mosaic r ites.
They were supposed to have been chased from Portugal by the ~nquisition
around 1580, and tradition has it that they settled in Curacoa in the beginning
of the 18th century after hav ing stayed in Brazil for some time.
Investigation has show n that the history of the family has run along somew hat
different lines . According to the records up to now at our disposal. the earliest
known Alvares Correas lived in Livorno (Italy) and not in P ortugal. The
family went from Livorno to Amsterdam and from there one member, called
Manuel, crossed the Ocean in order to settle in Curacoa. This Manuel is the
founder of t he family.
However, notwithstanding the absence of documentary evidence. it is more
than probable that tradition is right to a certain point. The name Alvar es
Correa is undoubtedly Portugese: "Alferes" means "ensign" or "second
lieutenant" in the portuguese language and "Correia" or "Correa" means
"leather" or " leather str ap" . And so it is not unreasona ble to believe that the
family, b efore emigrating to Livorno and Amsterdam, ha d lived in P ortu gal
and like so many of their compatriots outwardly practised the Catholic religion
w hile secretly keeping the Jewish fait h.
The reason w hy, according to tradition, the family arrived in C uracoa via
Brazil is easy to guess. The first settler of Bahia around 1510 . w hose name has
been immortalized in the epic poem of Padre Santa Maria Durao. 0 Caramuru,
was called Diogo Alvares Correa. F r om the identity of names the hasty
conclusion was drawn that the Curacoa A lv ares Correas d escend fro m this
Diogo. Up to now, however, no hereditary link can be establis hed between
Diogo and the members of the Cur acoa Family.
CHAPTER I
MANUEL ALVARES CORREA
Manuel's birth in 1650
According to a deed dra,vn up by Notary Padthuysen on Febr. 26th 1672 (see
r eproduction 1) Manuel Alvares Correa w a s born in Livorno around 1650.
About tw o years after his birth his parents took him to Amsterdam and left
him in the care of a certain Guillermo da Silva.
Manuel's par ents
About the parents of M anuel we know very little. Notwithstanding an exten-
sive research made in the archives of the City of Amsterdam, we can only
make a guess as to his father's name. As the first born son of Manuel was
Gabriel. we are entitled to suppose that Manuel's father was called Gabriel
too. In the 17th century it wa.s a Sephardic custom to name the first son after
his paternal grandfather, the second son after his maternal grandfather and
the third son after the eldest paternal uncle. Similarly, the first daughter was
named after her paternal grandmother, the second daughter after her maternal
grandmother and the third daughter after her eldest maternal aunt 1}.
It is imposs'ible to apply this custom to the case of Manuel's mother since the
records do not reveal who was the eldest daughter of Manuel.
We do not know what happened to Manuel's parents after their arrival in
Amsterdam. They presumably left because we did not find any trace of their
burial in that city 2) nor any mention of them in the notarial deeds of their
time 3) .
At what date they left Amsterdam we cannot say. But we do know that in
1672 they were no longer in Amsterdam: the deed of Notary Padthuysen
proves it.
We have tried to discover, in this connection, if Manuel had a guardian. In the
registers -! ) of the "Weesmeesters" of Amsterdam, which body had the duty
to appoint guardians to all fatherless children, we found no mention of an
appointment of this kind. Does this mean that Manuel's father, although
abroad, was still alive during his minority or does it simply mean that Manuel
did not possess financial interests sufficiently important to warrant the
appointment of a guardian? This might well be so.
The material circumstan ces of Manuel's parents must have been bad. Not
only does the fact that they left their child behind when leaving Amsterdam,
point to this supposition, but we also know from other documents that
Manuel's foste r father, Guillermo da Silva, lived poorly too. In a deed of the
just mentioned Notary Padthuysen 5), it is stated that da Silva was bankrupt
around 1659. His relation Hector Mendes. who signed, together with h im
as a witness the deed relative to Manuel's birth in Livorno, was a poor man
1)
I believe this to be in fact a Spanish and Portuguese custom which was carried so far that
the second son used as a surname the maidenname of his mother only. So we find f.i.
Manuel da Silva, son of Manuel Correa, because the name of his mother was d a Silva.
2) On 25 ljar 5412 (1652) was buried in Ouderkerk Gabriel A1s. which abreviation means
probably Gabriel Alvares (See Mr. D. H. de Castro Vol. 2, page 81 no. 91) Was this the
father of Manuel? Anyhow this Gabriel should not be mixed up with Gabriel Alvares
married to Leonore Duarte, who was a jeweller and still living in 1665, when he made
his last will. (Padthuysen no. 2894 - 18.6.1665)
We did not peruse all deeds drawn up between 1652 and 1672. The task would have been
enormous, all the more as most notaries did not make a yearly alphabetical index..
However we went through the deeds of Lock, Lavello and Padthuysen which notaries had
a considerable Jewish practice.
4) Mun. Arch. Amsterdam Weesmeesters
C ·10.9.1648 - 8.2. 1662
D missing
E 11.6.61 - 28.11.1680
6 ) March 17th 1659 Municipal Archives Amsterdam no. 2888.
3)
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Reprod. I.
Birth certificate ol Manuel Alvares Correa, born 1650 at Livorno
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TRANSCRIPTION
Op huyden den 26en Feb. anno 1672 compden
voor my Pieter Padthuysen openb. Notaris etcetera
present de naergen getuigen Sr. Guillermo da
S ilva out 57 Jaren en H ector Mendes out omtrent
37 jaren bey de wonende binnen dese stadt
my Notaris bekent , ende hebben op 't versoeck
van Sr Manuel Alvares C orrea tegenwoordig
mede synde alhier, by ware woorden eere ende
V romig hyt in plaatse ende met presentatie
van Eede Soleneel voord 'opregte waarheyt
geattesteert getuygt en verclaert dat
sy getuijgen den reqt in desen tsedert twi ntig jaren goeden gekent
hebben, des wanneer hy met syne oudders hier t er
stede ende int' huys van hem eer ste gete is
gecomen op welcke tyd sy getuygen gesien hebben
dat de reqt seer kleyn was ende n og in de rokken
ginge, ende naer hun oordeel geen twee jaren
volcomently ck out is geweest. gelyk syne
ouders op die tyt ( alsmede verscheyde and ere person en die tot Livorno
by de geboorte van den reqt waren geweest) tegen hun getuygen ook
geseyt hebben dat den reg 1 als doen geen twee jaren
o ut was, sulx dat naer die
calculatie den reqt nu tegenwoordigh niet
meer als omtrent de twee en twintig jaren
out kan syn. T er goeder trouwen a ldus
gedaen binnen Amsterdam present Johannes
Voordaagh en Jacobus de Moll als
getuygen ende alsoo sy getuygen de Nederlantsche
tale niet we] en verstaen soo hebbe
lck Notaris hunluyden d en inhou t deses
in d ~ Spaense tale te versta"en gegeven.
Guillermo da Silva
Hector M endes
J. Voordaa gh.
TRANSLATION
To-day the 26th of February of the year 1672 a ppeared before me, Pieter P adthuysen ,
notary public etc. in the presence of the witnesses hereafter named: Mr. Guillermo da
Silva, 57 years old and Hector Mendes about 37 years old, both living in this city a nd
known to me notary, who, a t the request of Mr. Mianuel Alvares Correa, also present,
have faithfully and upon their honour, attested, witnessed and declared, a fter having
taken solemn oath, as being the truth, that they w itnesses have well known the a pplicant
hereto for 20 years, since he came here with his parents in the house of the first named
witness, that at that time they witnesses have seen that the applicant was still very small
and in swaddling clothes and had in their opinion not as yet completely reached
the'age of two years, as his parents at that time, as well as other persons who were
present in Livorno a t the birth of the applicant have simila rly declared towards them
witnesses that the applicant had then not as yet reached the age of 2 years. that
accordingly as a result of this calculation the applicant cannot be older a t present than
22 years.
Thus drafted in good faith at Amsterdam in the presence of Johannes Voordaagh and
Jacobus de Moll as witnesses a nd as the w itnesses do not understand the Dutch la nguage. I. Nota ris, have translated the above to them in the Spanish language.
Guillermo da Silva
Hector Mendes
J. Voordaagh.
too; he was hounded by this creditors 6). If we add that Manuel married a
poor girl - her brother exercised the humble profession diamond cutter and decided, after his marriage. to emigrate to Curacoa, which island at that
time was certainly not a Garden of Eden, we can not be far off the mark when
presuming that Manuel and his parents were devoid of means.
We have tried to trace the parents of Manuel in Livorno, but without succes.
In an article of Mr. C. Roth 7), relative to the Marranos in Livorno, which
contains quite a number of names. no Alvares Correa is mentioned and no
other litterature on the Jews of Livorno exists to our knowledge. Moreover.
the Jewish Community in that city wrote us that their registers begin only in
1668. At that date Manuel's parents had already left. ( 1652)
Mr. Roth tells us. however, in his article that the archives of the Livorno
Community have not as yet been systematically examined - a fact which
was confirmed to us when w e visited Livorno in 1962 - ; it is quite possible
that a thorough research in these archives w ill yield important results. that may
give us the link between Livorno and Portugal.
In this connection, we may mention a quite interesting document which
belonged to the private library of the late Prof. J. Leon Cassuto, Porto
(Portugal).
The document in question is a copy, made in 1838, of a register of the Port ug uese Community in Livorno:
Under letter A it mentions:
Cognome
Nome
Reg. Pag.
Data
Provenienze
Alveras Caria
Josua di Josef
1
13
22 Oct. 1637
Alveras Caria
Jacob di Josef
13
22 Oct. 1637
Maybe these apparent twins were relatives of Manuel.
Manuel's foster father
We also tried to get some more information regarding the parents of Manuel
by making a research into the status and family of his foster father, G uillermo
da Silva, a lso known as Daniel de Sola or Daniel da Silva Solis or Daniel da
Silva.
We know that he was born in Sevilla in 1615, that he came to Amsterdam
w here he appears in several deeds of Notary Padthuysen a round 1660 and
that he married in 1695 in Amsterdam. at the age of 80 ( !) . Branca Nunes
also known as Rachel da Silva of Lisbon, aged 64. Excepting for this elderly
extravagance. nothing more is known about his family relations.
According to a deed of Notary Padthuysen (28.6. 1672 no. 2905) da Silva was
the tutor of the five children of Rachel. widow of Raphael Abendana. A year
later, one of these children became the wife of Manuel. This deed confirms
the narrow relationship existing between Guillermo Da Silva a nd Manuel. but
does not shed any more light on the ancestors of the latter.
H . I. Bloom. The Economic Activities of the Jews of Amsterdam in the 17th and 18th
centuries p. 110 note 126; p. 228.
See further Not. Padthuysen 28.6.1661 no. 2890 (Municipal Archives Amsterdam).
7) Revue des Etudes juives XCI 1931 p. 1-27 C . Roth, Notes sur !es Maranes de Livourne.
6)
Neither do the numerous deeds which refer to the commercial activities of da
Silva S).
Notwithstanding this lack of positive information, we are still inclined to
think that Guillermo da Silva was a relative of Manuel. In the "lnventorio dos
Livros de Matricula dos Moradores da Casa Real" of Brazil, we find mentioned £.i. "Manuel da Silva, filho de Manuel Correia, natural do termo de
Barcellos 6th of March 1643 9} and Cecil Roth in his aforementioned article
10) mentions a lawsuit between Abrm. de Joseph Jesurun Lopes and his cousin
Raphael da Silva, also known as Jacob Correa in 1659. In the first case
mentioned the 2nd son of Manuel Correa took, probably according to Portuguese costum, the name of his mother, thus becoming Manuel da Silva, which
means that the da Silvas and the Correas were related families. In the second
case, Jacob Correa took the name of Raphael da Silva in order to hide his
Jewish origin. The two cases show that a relationship between the names da
Silva and Correa exists, but they do not furnish positive proof that Guillermo
da Silva was a Correa from his mothers side.
About Manuel's life in the house of Guillermo we know very little. A deed of
Not. Padthuysen 11) tells us that he lived on the Geldersche Kade in Amsterdam, a canal still existing in that city, and that he had given money and
clothes to Daniel Abendana Mende.s .
Manuel's first marriage in 1673
On June 25th 1673, Manuel married in Amsterdam. His choice fell on Sarah
Abend ana, a girl w ho after the death of her father came under the tutorship of
Manuel's fosterfather, Guillermo da Silva. She was a daughter of Raphael
Abendana and Rachel, also known as Juana, Iv'Iendes. Being 22 years of age
she was one year younger than Manuel 12).
As M anuel was not in the possession of a birth certificate, he w ent to his
notary w ith his fosterfather and Hector Mendes, probably a relation of his
future mother-in- law, Juana Mendes, in order to obtain a s worn declaration
establishing his age ( Reprod. 1). This document shows that he came from
Livorno and that he was born there in 1650.
At his civil marriage figured as a witness Jacob Montesinos, who at the time
was a well known practioner among the poorer members of the Jewish
Community.
Manuel's foster father , for reasons I cannot gather, was not present at the
ceremony, neither w ere his parents. We do not find any trace of this marriage
in the records of the Sy nagogue but this is not surprising as the records
presently existing begin in 1675, the year in which the new Synagogue was
inaugurated.
~) Municipal Archives Amsterdam Notary P adthuysen no. 2888-1.8.1659; no. 2889-5.5.1660:
2889-22.10.60; 2890-22.12.61 and Bloom, Joe. cit p. 66. See also Padthuysen 17.3.1659 no.
2888 mentioning his bankruptcy.
9) Arch. Nae. Torre de Tombo, Lisbon Vol 1 1641- 1681.
10) Revue des Etudes Juives XCI 1931 p. 1 Ms. Roth 228 p. 74.
11 ) Municipal Archiv es Amsterdam. Notary Padthuysen H.4.1672 no. 2905.
1.2) Municipa'I Archives Amsterdam. Doop en Trouwboeken 9.6.1673 no. 689 p. 44 and
25.6.1673 no. 948. On the same date married Mozes Alvares of Peyrourade (Franc:e). Is
this a coincidence?
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As a curiosity, I may point out that the marriagedeed was signed by the bride
Sara Abendana with the initials "s.a.". As many girls of her time, she could
hardly write. Manuel signed both on the deed publishing the marriage banns
and on the deed of marriage itself, "Manuel Alveres", which may indicate that
the name " Correa", which he added to his name a few years later, was the
name of his mother.
Between the publication of the marriage banns and the marriage itself Manuel
received by notarial deed 13) on account of the dowry that was promised to
him by his mother in law thru the intermediary of Jeronimo N ufies da Costa
fl. 1103, to wit by the order of Duarte da Silva
fl 600
Jorge Dias Blandon
fl 450
Francisco da Silva, all residants of Hamburg fl 53
fl 1103
Manuel's voyage to Curacoa
A fter their marriage M anuel and his w ife stayed a few years in Amsterdam.
In 1675 he is mentioned on a list of married members of the Amsterdam
Community 1'1} . Shortly a fterwards he went to Curacoa. T his must have
happened between 1675 and 1677. because his wife gave birth to their first
child Gabriel on the island in 1677 . Maybe he belonged to the two groups of
Jews w ho requested the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch West ,India
Company the grant of a passport for Curacoa on June 15th and Aug. 23r d
1675 1 5); maybe he belonged to the group w ho made a similar req uest to the
Zeeland C hamber on Feb. 27th 1676 16).
What could have prompted Manuel to underta ke this long and h azardous
voyage with his young w ife? France and Holland were still at war. ( 16721678 ) , th e risk of being captured was therefore to be con sidered. What did
he expect to find on the other side of the Ocean ?
This leads us to the question of the position of Curacoa in the second half of
the 17th century. It w ill be remembered tha t Curacoa and the neigbouring
islands of A ruba and Bonaire were d iscovered in 15 27 by the Spaniards, w ho
w ith a singular lack of historical foresight, named them the "Islas inutiles".
In 1634 Curacoa was taken by the Dutch Captain van Walbeck, acting under
orders of the Dutch West India Company. He found an island practically
unhabited ·- only 32 Spaniards and 400 Indians lived on it - and devoid of
the mineral resources like gold and silver traditiona lly so eagerly sought after
by the first discoverers of the Caribeans. The island had, however one great
asset from a military and commercial point of v iew: a splendid natural harbour
which could be used as a "sedem belli" for operations in the Caribbean and
on the Spa nish and Portuguese mainland and w hich, because of its central
Municipal A rchives, Amsterdam. Padthuysen no. 2905 - 15.6.1672.
14) Mendes dos R emedios. Os judeos Portugueses em Amsterdam which gives a "Memoria de
las personas q ue ay en la Nacion cazados en 19 S ivan 5435". The original of this list lies
in the archives o f the Portuguese Israelitic Community at Amsterdam.
15 ) A rchives West India Cy, the Hague no. 330/201. Minutes o f Amsterda m Chamber p. 138
and p. 182.
Unhappily these Minutes do not mention the names of the new settlers.
"') Archives West India Cy, the Hague no. 745 Minutes o f Zeeland Chamber.
13)
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position, constituted an ideal site for the deposit and distribution of merchan~
dise. which in terms of the 17th century, included slaves. Indeed, already under
the Government of Stuyvesant ( 1643-1664) an "Asiento" ( Slavedepot) had
been installed on the island and thus when Manuel came to Curacoa, h e found
there a blooming slavetrade, in which he took part as we shall see later.
Manuel and his wife were not the first Marranos to settle in Curacoa. They
had been preceded in 1649 by Jan de Illan, who had gone there with 12
families and in 1652 by Joseph Nunes da Fonseca, also known as Dav id Nassi,
and his group.
Two years later some Jewish families arrived from Brazil, from which country
they had been ousted by the Portuguese. Manuel, when leav ing Amsterdam,
was therefore certain to find people of his own race and religion on the island.
Moreover the Dutch West India Company, which had just been reorganised
in 1674, favored colonisation of its overseas possessions by providing cheap
transport to prospective settlers. According to a Resolution of the Chamber
of Amsterdam, the costs of the voyage to Curacoa, including food, amounted
to only fl. 18,- ($ 6, - ) per person!
All these considerations made the voyage attractive to a poor but enterprising
emigrant.
Manuel's trade
W hat were Manuels activities once he a rr ived on the island? Although we
know that he became later the own er of a plantation, called "Savannah" w hich
his h eirs donated to h is son Gabriel in 1717 .J 7), we are certain that commerce
was the basis of his existence.
Agriculture was of small importance in Curacoa. Surely. the West Ind ia
Company possessed some plantations, but rain being scarce, the company, n otwithstanding the fertility of the soil. after some attempts t o cultivate cotton ,
tobacco and indigo, soon neglected them. Likewise, the forests which formerly.
existed were gradually cut down , giving Curacoa the barren aspect it s till h as
to-day.
Of the c~mmercial activities of Manuel, we find in the a rchives of the West
India C y an interesting exemple. According to a letter addressed to the Curacoa Director of the vV.I.C., Bernagie, of Dec. 23rd 1699, Manuel is n amed as
a representative of the Portuguese W.I.C. J S )
The transaction mentioned in this letter refers to the deliv ery of 200 to 250
"Piezas de India", i.e. slaves, through the intermediary of M anuel from the
Curacoa slavedepot of the Dutch Company at a price of 100 "stucken van
agten" ( i.e. $ 100) each to a Dutch ship "Het Land van Beloften", chartered
by the .Portuguese W.1.C. The slaves were to be loaded in C uracoa and sent to
Vera Cruz (Mexico ).
That Manuel, who was a religious man, participa ted in this sort of tra de,
seems strange by present standards. One should remember, however, that times
were not far off w hen negros a nd indians were considered as animals, devoid
of a human soul, and thus incapable of conversion to the Christian creed. Let
17)
18
)
Archives West India Company the Hague D 811 fO 321 22/ 8 Sept. 1741 referring to this
donation of April 16 1717.
A rchives West India Company the Hague no. 470 (337) p. 127 Dec. 23rd. 1699.
us not forget, moreover, that slavery was only abolished in Curacoa as recently as 1863!
J'vlanuel's r elation with the slavetrade appears also from a letter 18a) he wrote
to the West India Company in Amsterdam, in which he declared that Balthazar Beck, Captain of the Civil Guard in Curacoa and agent of the slave depot,
was " an honest man". Mr. Beck had had a serious quarrel w ith the Governor
of the Island, Mr. Nikolaas van Liebergen. According to Hamelberg. the
direct cause of this quarrel had been the follo w ing:
In 1682, on White Thursday, the sailors of a Spanish s laveship which was
anchored in port had hung in the y ards of their ship a Judas dummy. strikingly
resembling the Curacoa Rabbi and had played a game with sheep which they
had given Jewish names. The Jews had taken offence, and the Governor. w ho
was friendly to them, had immediately ordered the game to stop. On March
24th 1682. an Order in Council was issued, forbidding a nti-semitic 0~1trages of
this kind at a penalty of Ps. 100, corporal punishment and even banishment.
The Spanish sailors did not heed the o rder. A brawl ensued in which Beck
took side with the Spaniards against the Gov ernor. When Beck had to
defend his attitude before the Council of Ten of the West India Company in
Amsterdam, Manuel intervened in his favour. probably because the two had
a common in terest in the slave trade.
T hat Manuel must have made a quite a fortune in Curacoa is indicated by the
contribution he made when the French Captain Cassard ransomed the island
in 1713. Manuel paid the highest contribution of the members of the Jewish
Community , to wit Pes. 3600. The Wes t India C o . paid on that occasion
Pes. 12000 and its Director v an Collen a lso paid, like Manuel. Pes 3600 44 ).
Emmanuel tells us that Manuel liv ed at the N.W. side of Kuiperstraat 1 9 ) .
Since the houses in this narrow street, which still exists in Cur acoa. are
comparativ ely sma ll, we wonder how he managed as his ho usehold comprised
his wife, 12 children a nd servants.
Manuel's other activities
In the small and primitive community, Manuel lived in, all interest on the
spiritual plane centered in religion. In fact all art, all science in its many
branches, expressed itself through the synagogue. We are therefore not
surprised to find Manuel a zealous believer, w ho was a lready in 1678. a few
years after his arrival on the is land, "Hatam Beresit" i.e. Bridegroom of the
law 20) . He was in 1685/6 Gabay (Treasurer) . in 1691 /2 Vice President
1
"a) West India Cy. the H ague Verspreide stukken no. 970 p. 48 § 796 and p. 52 under V.
Emmanuel p. 232. He does not quote his sources however. In Ozinga is reproduced (fig.
152, 179, 180) a house actually situated Kuiperstraat 28, which consists of an ancient
rear part of very simple aspect covered by the traditional red gabled roof and a more
recent and more elaborate frontpar t with arcades on sma'll bulging columns. Benea th the
front gallery a cartouche can be seen representing a palrntree and carrying the date of
1728. Is it a coincidence that the tomb of Manuel's first wife, who died in 1689, carries
the same emblem and should it be supposed that Manuel liv ed in this house with his
family?
20) Member of the Congregation given the honour of commencing the annual reading of the
Pentateuchal cycle in th e Sy nagogue.
19 )
-12-
and from 1704/5 and later from 1714/5 President of the Congregation 21).
In a letter of Isaac Hoheb of 27.9.1716 22) he is even called "Haham", i.e.
"Rabbi", but we think this only means that in the absence of the official Rabbi
( 1683-1695), he led the religious ceremonies and that he was a distinguished
scolar with a thorough knowledge of the Talmud. On his tomb he is styled
"Hamaskil Venabon, kevod Rabbi", i.e. a "learned scolar".
Manuel's second marriage
In 1691, Manuel at the age of 41. having lost his wife Sarah Abendana two
years before, married for the second time. As his new w ife he chose Ester
Phebos, widow of his brother in law, Mordechay Abendana. Ester being born
in 1660 and Manuel in 1650 the match was very suitable and understandable
also from the point of view of Jewish custom, which obliges the bachelor to
marry his brother's widow. The only trouble was that Ester lived in Amsterdam and that Manuel had last seen her 16 years before, when she was 15
years of age. The marriage had therefore to be arranged by letter. It took
place in Amsterdam by proxy given to a certain Mozes Abbas 23). Ester was
a daughter of Isaac Phebos ( Phibos) and Sarah Barbanel. She was probably
a sister of Rachel Phebos who eight years later married in 1699 Manuel's son
Gabriel.
The Phebos family had known prosperity when they lived in Portugal. In the
Castle of Cintra in the "Sala dos Brasaos" 24 ) their coat of arms is painted
on the walls. But in Holland they were probably poor people. I deduct this
from the fact that the dowry of Ester amounted to fl. 9000 only, to which
amount the bridegroom himself contributed w ith fl. 7000. 25)
Manuel's children
Manuel's children giv e rise to a series of difficult questions. T hey are
genealogical problem children. The three principal questions, that arise, are:
le How many children were there?
2e On which dates or in what order were they born?
3e Which children were issue of the first marriage and w hich of the
second marriage?
The first problem was brought near a solution by the discovery of two
Emmanuel p. 232.
22) Municipal Archives, Amsterdam, wh ich actually keeps the Archives of the Port. Isr.
Community. Copiador de C artas.
23) Munic. Archives Amsterdam 14.4.1691 D.T.-B no. 697 f 057,
Munic. Archives Amsterdam 30.4.1691 D.T.-B no. 950.
Marriage Register Port. lsr. Com. Amsterdam 11 Nissam 5451.
24 ) A. Braamcamp., Brasaos da Sala da C intra p. XLVII gives a description of the coat of
arms of the family of Febos Monis: Es quartelado. 0 . Io e 4o: de azul 5 estrellos de oito,
pontas de oiro. 0 2o e 3o tarnbem esquartelado:
a) de vermelho cruz florida d'oiro, razia do campo.
b) de prata tres faxas de azul.
c) de prata leao de vermelho.
d) vermelho leao d'oiro.
T imbre: Leao aleapardado de vermelho, annado de prata.
25 ) Emmanuei, Precious stones p . 231 who cites Port. lsr. Com. Amsterdam. Ket. Vol. 2 no
198.
21)
-13-
deeds in the Hague Archives 26). The documents of similar content were found
in a very decayed condition. They had partially rotted away and the remainder nearly crumbled to dust when touched. We reproduce one of them in
order to preserve their text for the future. ( Rep rod. 2)
According to this document the heirs of Manuel:
Abraham de Chaves, widower of Rachel Alvares Correa
Jacob Semah Ferro, husband of Gracia
Raphael
Jacob Pinedo, husband of
Sarah
Mordechay.,
Isaac
Abraham
empower their co-heir
Gabriel Alvares Correa
living in Amsterdam, to straighten out certain accounts with Salomon Abrabanel de Souza.
These heirs were most probably all children of Manuel. as is corroborated by
the following facts:
a) Raphael at his marriage in Amsterdam was registered as "Raphael Alvares Correa of Curacoa, 35 years of age. Father Manuel Alvares Correa
at Curacoa 27) .
b) Mordechay calls Raphael " his brother" in his last w ill 2 8 ).
c) Abraham is also called " his brother" in that w ill.
d) Gabriel w a s registered at his religious marria ge in Amsterdam as " Gabriel
de Immanuel Alvares Correa " 29) .
Besides Gabriel is expressly mentioned in a deed of 19.4.1712 30) a s son
of Manuel.
No such indications exist regarding Isaac and the da ughters of Manuel, but the
probability is great that they w ere also children of Manuel, because their
names run in the family. Isaac w as probably n amed after Manuel's s econd
father in law Isaa c Phebos; Rachel of Manuel's first marriage was probably
named after her maternal gra ndmother Rachel Juana Mendes and Sarah of
Manuel's second marriage probably after her maternal grandmother Sarah
Barbanel.
But these were not Manuel's only children. In the abovecited last will of
Mordechay we find another son, called Mozes, who, according to another
document, 31) was a minor in 1720, which explains the absence of his signature
on both powers of attorney.
Lastly, the recently published w ork of I. S. Emmanuel, Precious Stones of the
Jews of Curacoa , reveals the existence of three more children: Ja cob and two
Abigaels. Jacob died on June 25th 1711, three years before his father 3 2 ), which
explains why he is not mentioned either on the tw o powers of Attorney .
26) Rij~sarchief, the Hague WIC. no. 1543 no. 13 and 16. The deeds are undated but were
found in a bundle of documents drawn up in 1719. They carry the numbers 13 and 16.
Municipal Archives Amsterdam. D. T. + B no. 710 p. 146.
28 ) Rijksarchief. the Hague W.I.C. 23.1.1 750 no. 821.
20) Marriage register Port. , Isr. Com. Amsterdam 11 Tamuz 5459.
30 ) Mun. Arch. Amsterdam Quy tscheldingen 86 EEEE.
31) Municipal Archives Amsterdam no. 6439 Deed Notary v an Aghtshoven 10.7.1,720 no. 373.
3 2 ) Emanue'I 2065 XV A 25.6.1714.
2 •)
-14-
The same applies to the two girls, both called A bigael. of which the fi rst died
in 1692 33) and the second in 1709 34). Thus Manuel probably had 12 children:
7 boys (Abraham, Mordechay, Isaac, R aphael, Gabriel, Jacob and Mozes)
and 5 girls ( Rachel, Sarah . Gracia and two Abigaels).
The next problem is the dates of birth of these twelve children. A few facts we
know for certain: Gabriel was born in 1677 35 ) ; Mor dechay in 1685 36):
Abraham in 1696 37) : Mozes around 1700 38 ).
For the r est we can only guess, and our guess is that the order in w hich
Manuel's heirs signed the decayed d ocuments of 1719 indicates the o rder of
their birth, the eldest signing the first. A ccording to this hypothesis, Rafael
was the eldest of the signatories followed by Mordechay, Isaac and Abraham.
He was not however the eldest son, whose name was Gabriel. as is proved
above. and who did not sign as he was in Amsterdam. This would mean that
Isaac was born between Mordechay and Abraham, i.e . between 1685 and
1696. The supposition is probably correct beca11se Isaac was no d oubt the
first son of the second marriage of Manuel in 1691 and named a ccording to
custom after his materna l grandfather Isaac Phebos.
As to the o rder of birth of the girls, the two powers of attorney cannot h elp
us o ut as the order of signature probably followed the age of their husbands.
The third problem cannot be solved completely either . But starting from the
facts we have established , we can affirm with cer tainty that Gabriel, R afael
and Mordechay wer e the issue of the first marriage ( see the dates of their
births) G abriel, the first son being called after his paternal grandfather
supposedly called Gabriel Alvares Correa, Rafael. the second son being
called after his ma terna l grandfather Rafael Abendana a nd Mord echay, the
thi rd son, in the absen ce of the existence of a paternal uncle, after his maternal
uncle Mordechay Abendana. This incidentally leads to the conclusion that
his father Manuel had no brothers. It is also cer tain that Rachel was a child
of Manuel's first marriage. She died in 1705 as wife of Abraham d e Chaves 39).
At that date she was certainly more than 15 years old i.e. born before 1690.
A s Manuel's first wife died in 1689 40), she must h ave been h er child, named
after her mother Rachel Juana Mendes which confirms our th eory.
If Rache'I was named after her maternal gr and mother, she was the second
daughter. Who was the first daughter, named after her paternal grandmother?
Abigael ( There were two Abigaels, one died in 1692; the other in 1709) ,
Sara, w ho died in 1779, or Gracia, who died in 1726?
We think we can exclude the second Abigael who was born a fter her namesake died in 1692 and who therefore issued from the second marriage.
We can also exclude in a ll probability Sarah: she died in 1779, a nd therefore
if she was a daughter of S arah, M anuel's first wife, who died in 1689. she
Emmanuel 1145 VII C 28.11.1692.
Emmanuel 2064 XV A 28.9.1709.
35) Mun. Arch. Amsterdam DT
B no. 701; p. 112.
36) Rijksarchief H ague WIC no. 597 p. 456.
37) Rijksarchief Hague WIC no. 808 12/ 8 Dec. 1738.
38 ) Mun. Arch. Amsterdam no. 6439 Prat. Not. van Aghtshoven 10.7.1720 no. 373.
39
) Emmanuel, Precious Stones 2063 XV A 9.9.1705.
40 ) Emmanuel, Precious Stones 1182 VII D 9.6.1689.
33 )
34)
+
- 15 -
R.eprod. 2.
Power of attorney of heirs of M anuel A lvares Correa (1719)
- 16 -
-17-
,.........
l
RECONSTRUCTION OF TEXT
on the basis of both protocols 13 and 16.
~
)
r .
(
,
,,......}
'.
,.._
'
l
·-'---\
'
Op huyden
1719?
compareerde voor my Willem Heldewier Secrets
ten dienste van de Ed Grootachtbaere Heeren Bewintvoerders
van de generale geoctrooieerde West Ind Comp te
C urac;ao resideerende de getuygen naegenoemt:
Abraham de Chaves, weduenaar van wyle n Rachel
Alvares Correa, f acob S emach Ferro in egt hebbende
Gracia Alvares Correa, Raphael Alvares Correa, f acob
Pinedo, in egt hebbende Sara A lvares Corre-a, Mordechay
Isaac en Abraham Alvares Correa alle er[g enamen
van wylen deheer Manuel Alvares Correa ende desselver
huysvrouw Juffw Ester Febos dewelke in die qualiteyt gesaementlyck verclaerde te constitueeren ende machtig te maeken,
sulx doende by deesen, deheren Samuel de Sim ........... .
citeur (?) ende Gabriel Alvares Correa meede Er[genaem van
gedagten heer Manuel Alvares Correa ende fuffw E ster Febos
omme gesaementlyk oftewel een ieder afsonderlyk
uyt de naemen ende van weegen hun Constituanten, haer persoonen representeerende. met de heer Salomon Abrabanel
de Sousa oftewel met deszelfs gemagtigde te adjustieren. saldeeren en liquideren de rekeninge welcke tussche n
gemte zalr heer Manuel Alvares Correa ende SynEd nog
openstaende mogte syn, het saldo van diens rekening te
vorderen ende ontfangen, quitantie ....... . .
ren ende voor niemaninge te bevryden ..... . .. .
dilaey ofte non voldoeninge van dien haer ........ .
regten daertoe te constringeeren tendien Eynde
voor . .... .... alle heeren kosten reghtens ende geregtelijk
van hun constituanten voor deselve E ....... . .
uyt te voeren soo wel Eyschende als V erv,.rerende
sententie ende interinement van Executie
gevende deheeren geconstitueerden meedens
magt omme de Saecke in questie te moogen submitteeren ende
verblyven aen de arbitragie van goede mannen ende d ..... . . . .
te mogen te gaen teekenen ende passeeren soodaenige accoorden
compromissen ende andere actens hetsy onder willige
condemnatie ofte andersints a ls van nooden syn sal en
sooals de heeren geconstitueerden ten beste van de Constituanten goet en geraden vinden sullen ende wyders generalyk
nog al/es meer te doen soo in regten als daar buyten het
geen der saeke sullen coomen te vereyschen ende inwege sy
Constituanten present synde selffs soude conne ende
mogen doen Beloovende dierha lven voor goed ende van
schade te houden en doen houden hetgeent door deheeren
geconstitueerden ofte desselfs substituyt off substituy ten
ugt cragte deeses sal worden gedaen ende verri gt
onder verbant als naar regten
Aldus Gedaen ende Gepasseert in Willemstad
op Curac;;ao ter presentie van Messrs Samuel P enha de
Casseres en Gerrit Luls als getuygen hiertoe versogt
Datum utsupra
Samuel Penha de Cassez-es
Gerrit Luis
~
1
Quod Attestor
Willem Heldewier
Secrets
Abraham de Chaves
Jacob Semah F erro
Raphael Alvares Correa
Jacob Pinedo
Mordechay Aluares Correa
Isaac Aluares Correa
Abraham Aluares Correa
-18-
TRANSLATION
To~day ........................... 1719?
Appeared before me Willem Heldewier, Secretary
in the service of the honourable gentlemen Directors
of the general authorised W.I.C.
the hereafter named w itnesses residing at Curac;:ao
Abraham de Chaves, widower of the late Rachel
Alvares Correa, Jacob Semah Ferro married to
Gracia Alvares Correa, Raphael Alvares Correa, Jacob
Pinedo, married to Sarah Alvares Corre.a, Mordechay
Isaac en Abraham Alvares Correa, all heirs
of the late Manuel Alvares Corre.a Esq. and his
wife Mrs. Ester Fe.bos, who in their said capacity
jointly declare to constitute and to empower
as they are doing hereby, Samuel de Sim ........ .
citeur (?), and Gabriel Alvares Correa coheir of
the said Manuel Alvares Corre.a and his wife Ester Febos
in order, jointly or seperately,
in the name and for account of their principals
representing their persons, to adjust, balance and liquidate
with Mr. Salomon Abrabanel de Sousa or his attorney
the accounts outstanding be.tween the said late Mr.
Manuel Alvares Correa and him
to claim and receive the balance
for his account, to give discharge ........ .
. . . . . . and to hold him harmless from any further claims, to grant
delays, to oblige him to pay, to assign
him to this end before the courts, to ....... . .
for account of their principals, to
execute all sentences, as defendants or as
claimants, to issue all writs of execution
it being understood that the attorneys are
also empowered to submit all matters involved
to the arbitration of honest men and to sign
all engagements, to make any compromises or other deeds, to accept
condemnation or otherwise, as might be necessary
as the attorneys in the interest of their principals might think fit
and furthermore, in general, to do anything in or out of
court as might be necessary as the attorneys might
have done themselves if present, it being understood
that they will ratify anything the attorneys or their substitute
or substitutes on the strength of the above have done
.. ....... or in law
Thus done and passed in Willemstad at
Curac;:ao in the presence. of Messrs. Samuel Penha de
Casseres and Gerrit Luis as witnesses here.to requested
Date as above.
Samuel Penha de Casseres
Gerrit Luis
Quod attester
Willem Heldewier
Secretary
Abraham de Chaves
Jacob Semah Ferro
Raphael Alvares Correa
Jacob Pinedo
Mordechay Alvares Correa
Isaac Alvares Correa
Abraham A lvares Correa
-19-
would have passed the age of 90, which is possible but not probable. Moreover
her name indicates her connection with Sarah Barbanel, mother of the second
wife of Manuel. The choice therefore lies between Abigael and Gracia. One
of these must have been the first daughter of Manuel, named after his mother
Abigael or Grace (Correa?).
Summing up, we came to the following schedule:
I.
Marriage with Sarah, daughter of Rafael Abendana and Rachel Juana
Mendes.
( 1673-1689)
offspring: 1st. son Gabriel (born 1677; died 1733) named presumably after
Manuel's father Gabriel Alvares.
2nd. son Rafael ( born 1681; died 1733) named after Sarah's
father, Rafael Abendana.
3rd. son Mordechay ( born 1685; d ied 1750) named afte~ Sarah's
brother Mordechay Abendana.
1st. daughter Abigael or Grace, named after Manuel's mother
Abigael or Grace Correa?
2nd. daughter Rachel ( born ?; died 1705) wife of Abraham de
Chaves, named after Sarah's mother, Rachel M endes.
II. Marriage w ith Esther, daughter of Isaac Phebos and Sarah Barbanel.
( 1691-1716)
offspring: 1st. son Isaac (born 1691 /6; died 1726) named after Esther's
father, Isaac Phebos.
2nd. son Abraham (born 1696; died 176 1) na med after Esther's
brother?
3rd son Mozes (born + 1700; died 1765) named after?
I st. daughter Sara h, wife of Jacob Pinedo (born ?; died 1779)
named after Esther's mother Sarah.
2nd. daughter Abigael ( born ?; died 1709) named a fter her sister
of the same name who died in 1692.
III. Uncertain.
Jacob
(born?; died 1714)
Abigael (born?; died 1692)
Gracia, wife of Jacob S. Ferro (born?; died 1726).
THE DEATH OF MANUEL
.~.
Manuel died on Jan. 12th 1717 at Curacoa 41) and was buried next to his
second wife Esther 42). who died six months before ( 23.7.1716) while her
husba nd was in Amsterdam ( see letter I. Hoheb quoted previously), his first
wife Sarah, who had died on 9.6.1689 43) being buried quite a distance from
his tomb.
About his estate we know little except that it must have been the biggest in
the Community at the time 44 ). We know he left a last will but we do not
41) Emmanuel, Precious Stones 2075 XV A.
42) Emmanuel, Precious Stones 2070 XV A.
-4 3 ) Emmanuel, Precious Stones 1182 VU D.
44) Compare levy Cassard;
Doc. p. 117.
J.
H. Hamelberg, De Nederlanders op de West lndische Eilanden
-20-
know its contents. Some trouble arose after his death regarding the distribution of his estate. In 1741 Jacob Pinedo, widower of his daughter Rachel
assigned his executors who were his son Mordechay and his son in law
Jacob S. Ferro, husband of his daughter Sarah, before the court, asking them
to render accounts. The matter found a solution the next year when all books
and accounts were brought to a neutral party, Raphael Jessurun 45).
On Manuel's tomb •( See Reprod. 3) the following epithaph has been carved;
Resting place of the honorable and elderly
man, the intellectual and wise scolar
Emmanuel Alvares Correa
His soul may rest in Heaven
He was taken to the Highest Tribunal
on
5 Shevat 5485
May his soul rest in Peace
On the date of his death a prayer in his remembrance ( Escava) is still said in
the Curacoa Synagogue to-day 46).
CHAPTER II
THE SECOND GENERATION
Some account should now be given regarding Manuel's children.
His five daughters
The daughters Rachel, Sarah and Gracia all married. Rachel married Abra.
ham de Chaves 47), Sarah married Jacob Pinedo 48 ) and Gracia, Jacob Semah
Ferro 49). The two Abigael's died in their childhood. That is all we will say
about them.
For the genealogist, who does not recognise equality of the sexes, women, as
a rule, are professionally uninteresting. When they ma rry, they change their
name and thus dissolve into the new family they adopt; when they remain
spinsters, their lives - especially in old times - are mostly so uneventful
that the date of their death is often the only fact worthy of note after their
birth.
His seven sons
Manuel's sons on the other hand deserve extensive consideration.
1. Gabriel, the oldest boy , soon after coming of age went back to Amsterdam where he married his aunt Rachel Febos 50). The marriage was not so
4 5)
Rijksarchief. the Hague, Gerechtsrollen dee! 20 - 16.5.1741; 30.5.1741; 27.6.1741.
Sententien en Conclusies Deel 6 - 27.6.1741; and 4.5.1742; Deel 7 - 29.3.1742; 13.7.1742;
W.I.C. 9.7.1742 Deel 849 no. 12; 14.3.1743 Deel 850 no. 75.
46) Libro de Legados Mikveh Israel. Curacoa.
4 7) National Archives, the Hague. West India Co. no. 1543 p. 13 and 16; no. 796- 16.5.1721.
She died on 9.9.1 705. See Emmanuel, Precious Stones 2063 XV A. and illustration of her
tomb p. 232. S he died on Sept 9th 1705.
48
) National Archives, the Hague. West India Company no. 1543 p. 13 and 16.
She died on 21.7.1779. See Emmanuel. Precious Stones 677 IV C.
49
) National Archives, the Hague. West India Co. no. 1543 p. 13 and 16. She died 'o n
18.2.1726. See Emmanuel. Precious Stones 2078 XV A.
50
) Municipal Archives, Amsterdam Puibroek no. 701 p. 112 Marriage register Port. Isr. Corn.
Amsterdam. 11 Tamuz 5459.
- 21-
Reprod. 3.
Reprod. 4.
of Manuel Alvares Correa. January 12th 1717
Tombstone of Sara Abendana, first wife of Manuel Alvares Correa died June 9th 1689
(Tombstone on t he leftside adorned with a palm tree)
-22-
Reprod. 5 . Kuiperstraat 28, Curacoa
Was this the house of Manuel A lvares Correa?
R eprod. 7.
R eprod. 6.
Old Cemetry, Otrabanda,
Cura coa
Tombstone of Abigael, daughter of Manuel Alvares Correa ( 1692)
Tombstone on the leftside
-22a -
T ombstone o f Abraham Alvares Correa,
son of Manuel (1761)
Reprod. 9. Tombstone o f E ster de Abraham Alvares Correa, wife of
Benjamin Vas Farro (1747) , granddaughter of Manuel.
~
R eprod. JO.
.
Tombstones of Mordechay A lvares Correa and his first wife Sara de Crasto
(res p. right and left)
-22b-
Reprod. 11.
T ombstone of Mordechay Alvares Correa (1750)
~ 22c ~
Reprod. 12. Tombstone of Jacob Alvares Correa ( 1714)
son
of Manuel Alvares Correa
-23 -
strange as it might appear a t first sight, for the bride had the same age
as her groom, they were both 22 years of age, w h en their marriage took
place.
Of Gabriel's activities we do not know much. From a deed of 1725 it
a ppears that he traded in cotton, coral and ba rnstone 51); according to
deed of 1713 he traded in lemon juice 52). In the list of administrators ol
the Rabinical Schools Talmud Tora and Ets Haim at Amsterdam, is
mentioned in 54 75 ( 1715) a Gabriel A lvares Correa 53). We think this
Gabriel was the son af Manuel.
H e had three boys and four girls. The boys died unmarried in Amsterdam
and of the girls, two died married and two unmarried.
The branch of G abriel, w hich one might call the A msterdam branch of the
familiy, is thereby extinguished.
We have not the impression that Gabriel was a man of mea ns. He w as
buried second class for fl. 30,- in Ouderkerk near Amsterdam 5'4).
In 1712 his father Manuel gave a house in A msterdam, worth fl. 6600, to
Gabriel's daughters Sarah and Esther 55). This liberality, which was not
repeated in respect to his other grandchildren, points in the same direction.
We have taken some pains to locate the just mentioned house in Amsterdam. According to the purchase deed, it was situated in the " Nieuw e
An thonie Breestraat on the south west side past the Portuguese Jewish
church". This str eetname does not exist anymor e; the street is now called:
"Muiderstraat". A row of 17th century houses can still be seen there, but
we do not know if the house Manuel gave, is one of them.
2. T h e second son Raphael, w ho saved the family from extinction because
all living Alvares Correa of Curacoa, descend from him, first went to his
elder brother Gabriel in Amsterdam, w here he married in 1716 at the age
of 35, Judith R. Monsanto 56 ) . Soon after his marriage, certainly before
1718 (in w hich year a protocol 57) refers to him as Raphael Alvares
Correa "from Cur acoa" ) , he went back to the island of his birth. He
became ther e a partner of his younger brother Mordechay 58).
The two brothers were the most prosperous members of the family .
Rafael's widow Judith R. Monsan to lived w ith her family on the plantation
called "Klein Piscaderis'' near " Groot P iscaderis ", w hich latter plantation
Mun. Archives, Amsterdam Not. van Aghtshoven n o. 6150 fo 97; 16 Feb 1725.
Mun. Archives, Amsterdam Not. Joh. V illekens no. 7536-30.6.17 13.
5 3 ) Gedenkschrift T almud Tora en E ts Haim p. 71. H is name. as well as the name of his son
Manuel still appears, painted on the walls o f the Ets H aim Rab inical School at Amsterdam.
as contributor.
54 ) Register O uderkerk, 5 Heswan 5494 - 2nd d ass Car. 23 Sepultura 24.
Mun. A rchives, Haarlern, Contra boek Joodse Dooden 1729- 1737: " 14 oct. 1733 h eeft
Isaac Aboab aangegeven het lijk van Gabriel A'lvares Correa en betaald fl. 30,- ...
55 ) M un. Archives Amsterdam Kwy tscheldingen 86 EEEE apr. 19th 1712.
Mun. Archives Amsterdam Kwytscheldingen 70 kkk fo 63, Sept. 11th 1693.
66 ) Mun. Archives Amsterdam D.T. + B no. 710 fo 116.
57) Nat. Arch. Hague W .I.C. D3: 103 - 22 dee. 1718. Emmanuel, Precious Sones p . 294 tells
us he went back as soon as 1716, accompanied by Haham Raphael Jesurum.
58) Nat. Arch. Hague W IC no. 797; 33 - 16 Feb 1722 and 3 July 1722.
no. 800; 301 - 22 Aug. 1731.
51 )
62 )
-24-
belonged than to the West India Co. When she made her will 59). this
plantation. including 20 slaves. which was run by her son Manuel. was
valued at $ 13.000. Klein Piscaderis was still property of the family in
1807, when it was sold to H.A. de Lima 60 ). At that time, Groot Piscaderis
had also became family property 61) . At present, Groot Piscaderis is
the property of a subsidiary of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. and has
become a health station for its Venezuelean employers. Rafael also owned
a small plantation called " Savannah", situated near the Muysenberg. It
was bestowed to him by his brothers and sisters after the death of their
father for services rendered 62), but was sold soon after his death by his
widow 63).
Rafael died on May 11th 1733 64).
3. About the third son Mordecha y many interesting details are known. He
was one of the most properous traders of the island. Owner of a fleet of
sailing vessels 65) . owner of real estate 66) . insurance underwriter 67),
importer and exporter 68). he gathered a considerable fortune which he left
to his only child Sara. His dominant position in trade led to all sorts of
honorific appointments and thus he is quoted as Treasurer of the "Com~
mission for the fortification of the Island 69). In the religious community he
a lso occupied a place of importa n ce. W hen the Synagogue was rebuilt in
1730, one of the corner ston es was laid by him 70) .
At the end of his life he was involved in a serious quarrel that had ar isen
between Mozes Penso and the Parnassim of the Synagogue.
To understand this quarrel one should know something of C uracoa topo~
graphy. The Island is nearly cut in halves by a deep bay, called the Anna
bay; on the east bank the city of W illemstad is situated. In the time of
Mordechay, the city was surround ed by a wall. inside w hich the house of
59)
GO)
61)
02)
G3)
64 )
<lo)
66
)
07 )
68 )
69)
70)
Nat. Arch. Hague WIC. no. 862; 213 - 15.3.1747.
Nat. Arch. Ha gue, W .I.C.no. 1109; 103- 8.9.1 807.
no. 1109; 31/3 - 6.5.1807.
no. I 109; 103 - 8.9.1 807.
no. 811; 317 22.9.174 1.
no. 811 ; 326 1.10.1741.
Emmanuel. Precious Stones 937 VI A . His wife is buried next to him 936 VI A .
Nat. A rch. Hague W IC. no. 847; 61 - 18.9.1741 Ba rk Suzanna ; no. 849; 169 - 31.10.1742
Bark Releive, no. 853; 252 - 6.11.1744 Bark Indevor; no. 851; 71 - 25.1.1 715 Bark Vriendschap; no. 857;130 - 2.12.1 745 Bark Diamant.
Nat. Arch. The Hague WIC. no. 797 209 - Aug. 1722 Purchase house Heerenstraat for
Pes. 2000,-.
Nat. Arch. The Hague W IC. no. 800; 13 June 1731 Purchase house Kuiperstraat for
Pes. 3000, - .
N at. Arch. The Hague WIC. no. 813; 323 28 Sept. 1741 Purchase house Wintstraat for
Pes. 837,-.
Nat. Arch. The Hague WIC. no. 822; 20 June 1719 Sale Plantation de V rijheid for
Pes. 6000.- .
N at. Arch. Hague W IC. no. 812 31.7.41.
no. 808 20.10.1738 (Sale of 1529 hides to Santa Domingo).
..
,,
,,
no. 176; 109 - 10.11.1 744 (Plakkaatboek).
W.l. Gids XVI p. 222 The other cornerstones were laid by Samuel de Casseres. J. Henriquez Morao and Emmanuel H iskiao Alevy. For this honour they paid resp. 410. 315, 325
and 355 Pesos.
- 25-
the Director of the WIC. the Protestant church, the Synagogue, the troop
barracks, the prison and the stores and houses of the inhabitants were
situated.
On the west side of the bay, "Otra banda" (litterally: "the other side")
gradually a twin city came into being when the citywalls became to small to
contain the growing population. Thus quite a number of Jews left in order to
establish themselves "on the other side". For those who were active followers
of their religion, the change was not all for the better. Separated by the Anna
bay, they could only with the greatest difficulties attend to the daily services
of the Synagogue. One of the important Jews of Otrabanda, Mozes Penso,
decided therefore to open a second Synagogue called "Neweh Sjalom".
At first the relations with the mother synagogue "Mikve Israel" were harmonious, but later on a quarrel arose regarding certain rulings of the parnassim
which acquired a violence hardly understandable w hen viewed w ith modern
eyes. Mozes Penso and his followers, after discussion had degene~ated into
insult, refused to recognize the authority of the Parnassim. In turn they were
excommunicated. This again provoked a reaction from the Otrabanda faction
w ho one day bodily assaulted their opponents in Heerenstraat.
As a result of this quarrel, Curacoa Jewry, already geographically divided,
split up socially and commercially. O ld friends refused to v isit and to greet
each other. Six Parnassim, a mongst others Mordechay and Mozes Penso, were
revoked 71). Trade relations were cut off with the result tha t trade declined
perceptibly much to the apprehension of the West ilndia Co .. Spirits ra n so
high tha t even to be buried together seemed an untolerable though t. Consequently steps were ta ken for the purchase of a separate cemetry.
The quarrel reached its high t at the death of Mordechay. At that moment the
new cemetry was not as yet ready and use of the old cemetry, under the
jurisdiction of the Parnassim , had consequently to be made. This meant
further trouble and one can not blame Mordechay w hen on the d ay of his
death , feeling h is end near, he cautiously added a codicil to his last will in
w hich he req uested the Protestant church to see to it that he should receive
a decent burial 72 ).
The burial indeed provoked a series of grave incidents. Mr. D. S. van Zuiden
in a n article in "De Vrijdagavond" gives us the following account:
"The situation was especially tense on May 24th 1750. On that day
Mordechay Alvares Correa died. Mozes Penso req uested the Parnassim to
hand him th e keys of the cemetry and they, in reply, sen t the instruments
for the purification-ceremony to the house of the d eceased. But these w ere
refused as the " T eha ra'' had already taken place. During the n ig ht, the two
gates of the cemetry were demolished and stolen. Besides, in the eastern
wall a breach was made of 14 feet w ide. When the P arnassim heard
about th is next morning, they requested the Governor to lend assistance.
The latter immediately put a sergean t and 20 soldi ers at their disposal. on
the special condition, however. that no force should be used and no shot
fi red . To avoid any misunderstanding, the Parnassim had a writ served, in
w hich they declared themselves still ready to bury Correa w ith a ll
71 )
N at. Arch. The Hague \ VIC. no. 597; 440.
72
Nat. Arch. T he Hague W IC. no. 821 May 21th 1750.
)
-26-
honours due to him and according to the Jewish rites, notwithstanding the
fact that the purification ceremony had not been performed by them. The
offer was declined.
And so the burial~procession of Correa arrived at the cemetry with Mozes
Penso at its head, followed by 500 or 600 whites and slaves, Christians and
Jews, negros and mulattos. Happily, no force was used, otherw ise a revolution might have ensued, as the Governor wrote to Amsterdam .. . The
quarrel had by now reached its culminating point. On April 30th the
Prince ( of Orange) had meanw hile intervened and ordered the end of
the strife" 73).
Mordechay was buried next to his first wife Sarah de Castro 74) . ( Repr. 1)
After Mordechay's death, Mozes Penso carried his devotion further by mar~
rying Mordechay'.s widow Abigael 75}. It may be noted in passing that this
Abigael hat already met a strange fate, because she was an Alvares Correa
herself, daug hter of Mordechay's brother Raphael, a nd thus had married her
uncle. We will not close this chapter on Mordechay without examining his
last will and its two subsequent codicils.
These important documents which are kept in the National Archives in the
Hague 76) give an interesting view on Curacoa conditions in the middle of
the 18th century and because of the many names appearing therein, allow
us to disentangle a number of familyties w hich otherwise might have
remained uncertain.
Mordechay left the bulk of his fortune to his only daughter Sarah, who
became his universal heir. The estate, thus left to Sarah, was subjected to the
following legacies:
1o to Mordechay's second wife Abigael:
a ) Pes. 11.500. (of which sum Pes. 3000 was to be paid in a promissory
note of Pes. 2.400 signed by Abigael's mother and Pes. 600 in the
form of 2 negroslaves) .
b} a house in Heerenstraat
c) some jewelry and diamonds
d) two slaves called Diana and Sabelhina.
20 to Manuel, son of his brother Raphael
P es. 3000
30 to Raphael de Manuel de Raphael Alvares Correa Pes. 3000
Pes. 3000
10 to Judica de Manuel de Raphael Alvares Correa
50 to Esther de Raphael Alvares Correa
Pes. 3000
fls. 3000
60 to Rachel, widow of his brother Gabriel
fls. 1500
70 to the Talmud Tora at Amsterdam
80 to the " Domine en Houderlinghe" of the Protesfls. 1500
tant church at Curacoa.
73 )
De Vrijdagavond 30 Dec. 1927 p. 628. See also Corcos p. 28/37 Amelunxen p. 85:
Gedenkboek p. 76; The letter of Governor J. Faesch to the Council of Ten of June 13th
1750 in Nat. Arch. the Hague W IC. no. 597 fo 765.
74) Emmanuel. Precious Stones 773-VB 25.5.1750 (tomb Mordechay)
Emmanuel, Precious Stones 722-VB 28.2.1715 (tomb Sarah).
7 5 ) Nat. Arch. the Hague WIC. D 1552 15.8.1751.
76) Nat. Arch. the H ague WIC. D 821 23.4.1750; 19.5.1750; 21.5.1750.
- 27 -
90 to Judica, d aughter of his brother Abraham
100 to Abigael
11 o to Gracia, daughter of his brother Mozes
Pes. 1500
Pes. 1500
Pes. 1000
120 to his brother Mozes full discharge of all overdue
rents and the right to live during his lifetime. in the
house he is occupying
130 to Jacob Miranda
Pes. 200,140 to Antonynchi, his negro servant, who will be set
Pes. 1000,free and receive
J 50 to the poor on the day of his death. on the 8th
day, after one month and after 11 months
Pes. 50,- each time
J 60 to Sarah de Mozes Penso
a string of diamonds
170 to Raquel de Jacob Pinedo
Pes. 800,After payment of these legacies, Sarah was to receive fls . 300,000. to be
administered by the " Sres do Mahamed do k .k. de Talmud Torah de Amster~
dam", who were to invest half of the sum in shares of the Dutch East India
Company and the other half in English Treasury bonds. The remainder w as
left at Sara h's free disposal.
With Sarah, who shortly a fter the death of her father married, Isaac H aim de
Moseh Rodrigues da Costa from Amsterdam 77). the branch of M ordechay is
extinguish ed .
Sarah had had two twin brothers, called Mordecha y and Manuel. but these
both died in I 727, possibly a t their birth.
4. Of the fourth son Isaac, first son of Manuel's second marriage we do not
know anything except his marriage with Rachel Israel 78) and his death at
Curacoa as early as 1726 79) . He did not hav e any children. That is a t
least what we gather from his wife's testament, in which the whole
estate is bequeathed to distant family and friends so).
About Isaac activities we know little except for a judgement by defa ult of
the year 1721 which condems him to pay P es. I 036:6:3 s1) .
5. The fifth son Abraham, born in 1696 8 2) was married to E ster Andrade 83).
He had four daughters, called Judica 84), Abigael 84). Ester S:5) and Sarah
Publications of Marriage banns 1.5.1750 Nat. Arch. the H ague \,VIC. no. 824.
M arriage 12.7.1750 Nat. Arch. Hague WIC. no. 824.
78 ) See testament of Aug. 1729 Nat. Arch. H .ague WIC. no. 799; 182.
79) Emmanuel. Precious Stones 2077 X V - A • 15.1.1726. On his tombstone is w ritten
Yshac Raphael".
SO) N at. Arch. the Hague WIC. no. 885; 181 - 27.5.1726.
81) idem no. 1518 - 22.4.1721 and 24.6.1721.
8 2 ) Nat. Arch. The H ague WIC no. 808 • 12/ 18 Dec. 1738.
83)
,
no. 872; 153 - 29 Dre. 1751. Testament of Sarah, wife of
B~njam;~ Vas f a.;ro in fa;our of her parents Abraham Alvares C orrea and Esther Andrade.
S4) See testament Mordechay: Judic:a received Pes. 1500: Abigael also Pes. 1500.
55 ) Nat. Arch. The H ague WIC D 912; 81 · 22.2.1 771.
77 )
,..
'
-28-
and one son called Manuel 87 ). He was a sworn broker of the "Sociteit
van Commissie en Navigatie" SS) and a charterer of ships 89}.
Abraham belonged with Gabriel of Amsterdam, Isaac and Mozes to the less
prosperous brothers. In 1735 his name appears on the list of "Famili een Zwarte hoofdgelden" 90) with 1 slave only ( Mordechay 10; Raphael's
widow 11 ; Mozes 4). Abraham was a religious man. In 1723 he was
Parnas 91); between 1728 and 1729 he was administrator of the
cemetry 92).
He died on Feb. 23rd 1761 and was buried next to his wife !l3). Onei of his
daughters, Judica married Manuel Alvares Correa, son of his younger
brother Mozes 94). Abigael married Daniel Lopez de Castro 95), Esther
Benjamin Vas Farro who after her death married her sister Sarah 96).
His son Manuel went in the business of his father and was often at sea
for his account. A deed of the year 1749 tells us he was made a prisoner,
when sailing along the Venezuelan coast, was brought to la Guaira (Venezuela) and from there taken to Cadiz 8 7) (Spain). In 1750 Manuel was
apparently set free again, as he gives in Curacoa a power of attorney 97)
to his father.
In 1756 we find him in St. Thomas 98).
Descendants of Manuel are not known to us; neither do we know where
and when he died. He was apparently unmarried.
6. Manuel sixth son Mozes was still a minor when his father died 9!)).
He married Esther S. Ferro and died in Curacoa on Jan. 6th 1765 100).
Mozes was a poor man, continuously in trouble with his creditors. Two
documents record that he was unable to pay his debt to Benjamin Henriquez 101) . In 1750 his brother Mordechay gave him in his last w ill discharge of all unpaid rents and the free use of the house he was living in
during his !ifetime. At the end of his life, he and his wife were supported
by their son Manuel and when he died his estate is said to have been
86}
sG) Nat. Arch. The Hague, W .I.C. D 819;30.6.1748.
87)
ss)
89)
D
D
D
D
820; 14.1.1 749.
1549 3.12.1739.
808; 20.10.1738.
837; 3 and 24 Aug. 1758; D 877 - 23 May 1760; D 836;
~1 )
358 - 10.5.1758.
Nat. Arch. The Hague D 1521 - 18 Oct. 1735. See also Hamelberg Doc. p. 156. D 6 28.7.1770 and 31.3.1741. Pays Pes. 2 "familiegeld" 3rd class.
Emmanuel, Am. Jew. Hi.stor, Society XLIV p. 4.
92 )
Emmanuel. Precious Stones p. 58
!lO)
93 )
Emmanuel, Precious Stones 569 IV A - 23.2.1761 Tomb Abraham; 570 IV A - 26.2.1769
Tomb Esther.
9 4 ) Nat. Arch. The Hague WIC D 833 20/29 A.ug. 1756 Marriage Judica.
95)
D 828 14 April/13 May 1753 Marriage Abigael.
96)
D 819 2 May/ 30 June 1748 Marriage Sarah.
U7)
98)
99)
100)
101)
D 824 17.8 .1750.
D 833 13.9.1756.
Mun. Arch. Amsterdam Nots v. A.ghthoven D 6439; 373 10.7.1720 refers to the "'tutor of
Mo:i;es",
N at. A.rch. The Hague WIC D 1558; 9 - 6.1.1765; Tombstone 2112 XV-C 6.1.1765: of
his wife 2113 XV C 11.1.1765.
Nat. Arch. The Hague WIC D 808; 25.2.1738 and 19.9.1738.
-29-
burdened by debts "ende desolaat" 102). Financially his life was not a
succes. However, in the Synagogue he occupied a certain position. He is
quoted by Emmanuel as Parnas in 1742 and 1752 103) and as administrator
of the cemetry ( Parnas de Hebrah). In 1734 he even built at his expense
the wall around it 104 ).
Mozes' offspring went to St. Thomas. In 1838 died there in prosperous
conditions Manuel de Mozes Haim de Mozes Alvares Correa. According
to certain information we received he sent his children to Europe in order
to be brought up in the Protestant faith. We have found no trace of them.
7. Manuel's 7th and last son was Jacob. He died young ( 1714) and was a
rabinical student 105).
CHAPTER III
THE BRANCH OF RAPHAEL
As we observed all Curacoa Alvares Correa's presently living, desc;end from
Raphael. Manuel's second son.
In the following pages we have drawn, as accurately as possible, a family tree
which comprises the offspring of Raphael and his brothers up to modern times.
It should not be regarded as a definitive piece of work, because many dates.
especially in the 19th and 20th century, are missing and w e fear also, that
some members of the family w ho lived outside Curacoa have been left out.
Also left out - but on purpose - were a number of children who died a t
birth 106) .
Nevertheless we thought that the genealogical data w hich are contained therin
to be of sufficient interest to render its publication useful and interesting.
,,---
102)
103)
104)
10,1 )
1 06)
,-
'
Nat. Arch. The Hague W IC. D 1558; 9- 6.1.1 765.
Am. Jew. Hist. Soc. XLIV, 4.
Emmanuel, Precious Stones p. 45 en 58.
See Repr. 12 a nd Emmanuel, Precious Stones p. 22 l Tombstone 20 65 XV A - 25.6.J 714.
We have not been able to connect the following family members:
Mordechay Alvares Correa Hm. Tombstone 74-I-D; date on tombstone undeciferable but
after 1822. He may have been a son of Mordechay de Mordechay who married Rachel
de Rafael Alvares Correa in J 830.
R achel de Manuel Alvares Correa. Born 3 Jan. 1820 at Curacoa; died 25 July 1897 at
Curacoa; buried in the cemetry of the Temple Emma nuel.
Rebecca Alvares Correa . Tombstone 515 III G -30.1.1767. She may have been a daughter
of a daughter of Manuel de Mozes (1727-1809) or Manuel de Rafael (? ~ 1781).
Rachel Alvares Correa Hm. w ho married on June 30th 1718 Salomon Motta (WIC . no.
819; 2.5.1718) and died on 18/ 19 Nov. 1749. (Tombstone 564 IV-A). She was probably
a daughter of Mo:.:es Alvares C orrea and Esther de Jb. S. Ferro because at her marriage
appeared as witness; Sarah S. Ferro.
Sarah de Benjamin Alvares Correa Hm. Died 29.6.65 (M.I. Register B) Is probably the
same one as Sarah born 27.6.64 (M.I. Reg. B) .
TABLE I
MANUEL
b.
d.
m.
Abigae l
m. ··· ···
Rachel
b .... at
d. 1705 at C.
m . ... at ...
Abr aham de
Chaves
See furth er:
Gabriel
Rafael
b. 1677 at C.
b. 1681 at C.
d . 1733 a t A.
m. 1699 at A.
Rach e l
de
Isaac Febos
y Sarah
Barbane l
d . 1733 at C .
m. 1716 at A.
Judith R.
M onsanto
v
;::::;
Ta ble 11
Tabl e Ill
Mor dechay
Isaac
b. 1685 at C .
d. 1750 at C.
m. 1' 1721 at C .
b. 1691/6 at C.
d. 1726 at C.
m. ... at ...
Rachel
Israel
Sarah de Crastc
2' 1745 at C.
Abigael de
Rafael AC.
Jacob
b .... at ...
d. 1714 at C.
m....
Mozes
b. ± 1700 at C.
d. 1765 at C.
m .... at .. .
Esther de l b.
Semah Ferro
Gracia
b .... at .. .
d. 1726 at C .
m... at ...
l b. Semah
Ferro
Sarah
Abigael
--b.
b . ······
d . 1779 at C.
m .... at ...
Jb. Pinedo
d. 1709 at C.
m. ......
0
;::::;
~
l
;::::;
Table V
Table V I
From table I
GABRIEL
Jacob
b.... at ...
d. 1764 at A .
m. ......
Sarah
b .... at ...
d. 1729 at A.
m.
0
Branch ext inguished
)
Abraham
b. 1696 at C.
d. 1761 at C.
m. ... at .. .
Esther
And rade
(;.)
Table IV
TABL E 11
3rd. generat lo•
)
(b. 1651)
(d. 1689)
2°. 1691 at Amsterdam/Cura9oa
Esther de Isaac Phebos y Sarah
Barb anel, widow o f Mordechay de Raphael Abendana (b. 1660)
(d. 1716)
2nd generat ion
b.... at ...
d. 1692 at C .
1650 at Livorno
1717 at Cura9oa
1 °. 1673 at Amsterdam
Sarah de Raphael Abendana y Rachel Juana Mendes
)
Gracia
b . 1711 at A.
d . ± 1775 at A.
m. 1735 at A.
Jb. de Ellao
Naar
Jael
b. 1720 at A.
d. 1785 at A.
m. 1743 at A.
Abm de lb.
Moreno
Esther
b .... at ...
d.
at A .
m ... .
0 ...
Manuel
b.... at ...
d. 1729 at A.
m. .. .
0 ...
Raphael
b .... at ...
d. 1751 at A.
m ...... .
ABBREVIATIONS :
=
=
=
0 -=
c
A =
b
d
m
b orn
died
married
unmarried
Cura9ao
A msterdam
)
)
)
)
From tab le I
RAPH A EL
TABL E Il l
3rd. generatio n
Sarah
b.
at
d . 1743 at C.
m .... at ...
Isaac Jesurum
Esther
b .... at C .
d.
at ..
m. 1751 at C.
El ias
Nam las
de Crasto
m. 1° 1745 at C.
Mordy A.C .
2° 1751 at C.
Mozes Penso
Manuel
JaeI
Abigael
b .... at ...
d. ± 1796 at C.
b.
d.
at
at
m. . at ...
Da niel
B el monte
--
Rachel
--
b . .. . at C .
b . ... at C.
d. 1784 at C.
m. 1742 at C.
Hanah S.
Ferro
d . 1792 at C.
m. 1742 at C .
Isaac
Belmonte
Gracia
b. ... at ...
d. 1752 at C.
m. ... at ...
Samuel de
Jb Juda
Leon
4th generat ion
Mordechay
b. 1757 at C.
d . 1807 at C.
m. 1783 at C.
Hanah de
Rafo el de
Ma nuel de
Rafael A. C.
See furt her
Sarah
Raphael
b . ... at C.
d. 1810 at C.
m. 1774 at C .
Mozes Penso
b . ... at C.
d. 1802 at C.
m. 1° . 1761 at C.
Lea de Benj.
Lopes Henriquez
2° . 1766 A. c.
Rachel de Joseph
Jesurun Henriq uez
::::,
v
Tabel VI I
Tab le VI II
Judith
b.
d 1753 at C .
m.
0
(ch il d)
Manuel
Mordechay
Sarah
b .... at C .
d. 1803 at C .
rn. 1750atC.
Isaac Ha im
de Mozes Rodrigues
da Costa
-b.
Gracia
Gracia
d. 1745
b.
d. 1751 at C
m.
m.
D
(child)
0
( ch ild)
vJ
From table I
MORDECHAY
TABLE IV
3rd. generatio n
Branch extin~ulshed
Jacob
b . .. . at C .
d . 1788 at C .
m. 1761 at C .
Mordy de Benj .
Lopes Henriquez
b ... at ..
d . 1727 at C.
m.
0
(chil d)
b . ... at
d. 1727 at C .
m.
D
(child)
From table I
ABRAHAM
TABLE V
3rd. generat ion
Gracia Sarah
Judi ca
b.... at ...
d. 1755 at C.
m. ... at .. .
lb. Ul loa
Esther
Abigael
b .... at C.
d. 1769 at C.
m. 1756 at C .
Manuel de
Mozes A. C.
b. at ...
d. at ...
m. 1753 at C .
Daniel Lopez
de Castro
Manuel
b. at ...
d . 1747 at C .
m. at C.
Benjamin
Vas Farro
Sarah
b . ... at C.
d.
m. 1748 at C.
Benjamin
Vas Farro
b. 1718 at C.
d ...... .
m. ····· ·
Branch ext i nguished
From table I
MOZES
TABLE VI
3rd. g e nerat ion
Rebecca
b... . a t ...
d. 1787 at C .
m. 1770 at C
lb. de Isaac
Be lmonte
Gracia
b . ... at C.
d. 1803 at C
m. 1•. at C.
Isaac S. Ferro
2°. 1767 at C .
l b. de David
Aboab Osori o
Abraham
Manuel
b. 1735 at C.
d. 1811 at C.
b. 1727 at C.
d. 1809 at C.
m. 1° . 1756 at C.
m .... at ...
Judith de Abm. ACl
2°. 1769 at C. Ju dith
de Isaac de l b .
Belmonte
vJ
N
l
J
4th. generation
Mozes Halm
b . ... at C.
d . ± 1800 at .
m. 1795 at C.
Est her
b. 1759 at
d.
m.
Rachel Fereyra
I
5th. generation
Manue l
b. 1796 at C.
d . 1838 at St. Thomas
m.. .. at ...
6th. generation
I
Protestant offspring
exist ing?
1
l
Rachel
b. 1821 at ... .. .
d. 1852 at St. Thomas
m .... .. .?
l .
)
1
I
\
)
)
I
)
)
From tabl e 111
MORDECHAY
TABLE Vil
5th. generation
Mo rdechay
Manue l
b. 1795 at C .
b . 1807 at C.
d. 1861 at C.
m. 18 14 at C.
d . 1848 at C .
rn. 1830 at C.
Rachel de My.
de Raphae l AC.
Esther de lb.
Pinedo
(Table V III)
6th. generati on
I
Gabriel
b. 1837 at C.
d. 1862 at C.
m . ... .. .
Rebecca
Jacob
b. 1825 at C .
d.
m..... •.
b. 1817 at C .
d.
m ..
Mordechay Jr.
b . 1816 at C .
d. 1886 at Rio
Hacha
m. 1838 at C.
Est her de
Samuel da
Costa Gomes
I
b. 1830 at C.
d. 1899 at C.
m. 1874 at
b. 1813 at C.
d.
m.
Hanah
Abigael
Hannah
Lea
b . 1832 at C.
d . 1926 at C.
m. 1856 at C
Abm de David
Del va lle
Henri ques
b. 1831 at C .
d ..... ..
m. 1865 at C.
Manue l de
Mordy A.C .
Rio Hacha
Abm. de Marchena
C lara
b . 1835 at C.
d . 1917 at C .
m. .. . 0 ...
7th. generation
Samuel
b. 1845 at Baranqu illa
d. 1907 at C.
m. 1°. 1875 at C . Rachel
de Gomes Casseres
2° . 1880 at C. Jud ith
de Jose Gomes Casseres
~
See further Table IX
Rachel
b. 1841 at C.
d . ... at Caracas
m. 1° . at C . Eli
de Gabriel Pinedo
2° . 1876 at C.
Davi d de David Le on
Ma nuel
I
b. 1839 at C.
d. 1898 at C.
m. 1865 at C .
Ab igae l de Manue l d e
~
Mordy A C .
Julia
b. 1846
d. 1934
m. 1898
El ias
at M omp os
at C.
at C .
de Marchena
Hanah
b . 1843 at Baranqu illa
d .... at ...
m . ... at ...
Morr is Pinedo jr.
Jaco~
b. 1847 at Mompos
d.
at Ri o Hacha
m ... . at ...
Esther
b . 1838 at C.
d . 1921 at C.
m . .. .
O ·..
~
\..,.)
l
From table 111
RAFAEL
TABLE VI II
5th. generation
Manuel Halm
Hannah
Ma nuel
b. 1771 at C.
b . at C.
d. 1854 at C .
m . 1790 at C.
Sarah de Benj
C. Henr iques
d. at ......
m. 1783 at C.
Mordy de Manuel
de Raphae I AC.
Mordechay S r.
b.
d. 1768 at C .
D ...
m....
Joseph
b. 1784 at C.
d. 1841 at C .
m. 1°. 1800 at C.
Cla ra de Jb. de
Gabri el Pinedo
2° . 1840 at C.
Clara de Mozes
Henri ques Ju liao
(child)
( Augustinus
Franciscus
Ludovlcus)
b. 1778 at ...
d.
m. . ..
Esther
Lea
b . at . ..
d. 1817 at C.
m. 1803 at C.
Manuel de
Mozes de Mozes
Penso
b. 1773 at C.
d . 1854 at C.
m. 1796 at C.
M oses de Moses
de Moses Pe nso
6th. generat; on
Rafael
b . ... H .. .
d .. . , H .. .
D
m.
I
B enjamin
b . 1793 at C.
d. 1881 a t C.
m. 1°. 1815 at C.
Sarah de Ra phael
Pinedo
2°. 1855 at C.
Abigael de
Jehosua Raphael Henriques
Julia
b.
d. 1873 at C .
m .......
Jacob
b. 1809 at C.
d. 1883 at C.
m.... at .. .
Rachel Pinto
Lea
b. 1815 at C .
b. 1820 at C.
(Gran Manchi)
d.
d. 1884 at C .
m.
m. 1835 Rebecca de
Daniel Jesurun Sasportas
Benjam in
b. 1840 at C .
d. 1901 at C .
m. 1866 at C.
Hanah de
David De lvall e
Henriques
~
~
~
Table XI
Table XII
Tab le XI I I
~
See fu rther: Tabl e X
Manuel Jr.
Rachel
Hanah
-b. -----b. -----1807 a t C .
1819 at C.
d . 1888 at C.
m. 1830 at C.
M ordy de
Mordy AC.
(Tabl e VII)
d ..... ..
m. 1839 AC
Mozes de
David de
Moses de
David C .
Henriques
Reb ecca
b . 1812 at C.
d. 1889 at C.
m. 1835 at C.
Raphael
de Raphael
Pi nedo
I
Raphael
b. 1808 at C.
d.
m . 1837 at ...
Rebecca
de Moses
Abo ab
Osorio
~
Ta ble XI II
v.l
~
l
from Table V I I
SAMUEL
TABLE IX
8th. generation
Joseph
b. 1882 at C .
d.
m. 1912 at C.
Sarah de Mordy
de Salomon L.
Maduro
Mortimer
b. 1876 at C.
d. 1917 at C.
m. 1°. 1906 at C .
Henri ette de
M oses de Leao
Lagu na
2° . 1926 Ophel ia
de Isaac Henri ques Moron
9th. generation
I
Yvonne
May
b. 1913 at C .
d. ......
b. 1915 at C.
d. .... ..
m. 1933 at C .
m. 1935 at C.
Max de Arturo de Mozes d e Max d e Morris
David de Salomon
C. Henriques
)
)
r
!yaJ I
)
)
D el io
b. 1884 at C .
d . 1960 at C.
m. 1902 at C .
Mauri tz de Elias
Perei ra Brandao
)
I
From tab le Vil I
BENJAMIN
)
TABLE X
7th . generat ion
Raphael
b. 1860 at C .
d .... at ...
m.
0
Clara
Jeosuah
b. 1866 at C.
d. 1918 at C.
m. 1884 at C.
Mozes de
David de Castro
b. 1857 at C .
d . 1920 at C.
m. 1880 at C.
Ricot de Isaac
Pi nedo
)
Manue l Haim
Mordechay
b. 1856 at C.
d. 1872 at C.
m.
0
b. 1863 at C.
d . ... at C.
m.
8th. generation
Benjamin
lsanc
b. 1881 at C.
d. 1881 at C.
m.
Edward
b. 1882 a t C.
d.
0
m.
D
b. 1883 at C.
d. 1951 at NY
m.
0
Michel
David
b. 1884 at C.
d. 1943 at C.
m.
D
A bigael
b. 1887 at C .
d . 1960 at C.
m.
D
Mozes
b. 1889 at C.
d. 1889 at C.
m.
Rose
b. 1891 at C .
d . 1959? at C .
m. 1' . 1925 a t C .
Rose de M orri s
d e Elias Cu riel
2' . 1941 at C.
Rachel de Hal m
da Costa Gomes
D
9th. generation
Sarah
b. 1893 at C .
Rebecca
b. 1894 at C.
d .......
m.
D
d . 1893 at C .
m.
D
b. 1897 at C .
d.
m.
0
John Henry
b. 1943 at New York
d.
Vl
m.
I
\.;.)
From table VI II
JACOB
TABLE XI
7th. generation
Clara
b.. .
d. ..... .
m.
0
Serafina
b. .. . at .. .
d. ... at .. .
m. .. . at .. .
.. ..• . Helm
Rodolfo
b . ... at
d.
at
m.
at ...
Margari ta
Rodriguez
A l ejandro
Manue l
b .... at .. .
d. ... at .. .
m.... at .. .
Ribca
Cortlssos
b . ... at .. .
d . ... at .. .
Enrique
Sylvia
b.
at ...
d . ... at ...
m. 1' .... at •..
Enr iqueta
m. ... at .. .
I
b . ... at •..
d . ... at .. .
m .... at ...
Jul la
b . ... at .. .
d .... at .. .
m ... . at .. .
l b. Cortissos
Rebecca
b .... at .. .
d .... at .. .
m . .. . at .. .
2~~n-~_o :~~~-
Maria Helm
'--~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
8th. generation
I
Ernesto
b.... at ...
d.... at ..•
m. ... a t ...
Edga rdo
-----b .... at ...
d .... at ...
m .. .. at ...
Emilio
b.... at ...
d . ... at .. .
m.
at . ..
a son
'
(
MANU EL Jr. (Table VII I)
(Gran Ma nchl)
had 15 childr en
TA BLE XII
7th. g enerat i on
Cla ra
b.... at .. .
d . ... at .. .
m. 1859 at C.
My de Rafae l
Pinedo
Mlrjam
b . 1843 at C.
d . 191 1 at C.
m. 1868 at C.
Moses de Rafa e l
Pinedo
Sarah
Rachel
b. 1849 at C.
d . 1901 at C.
m. 1869 at C.
Manuel de Elias
de M ozes Penso
Henny
De lia
b. 1856 at C .
b. 1863 a t C.
d. 1863 at C.
m ....
Grace
b. 1851 at C.
d .... at .. .
m. 1870 at C.
Benjamin de Joseph
Pereira B randao
b. 1854
d. 1937
m. 1871
Jb .
at C.
at Pari s
at C.
de Eli as
Penso
d . .... . .
m . 1874 at C.
David de
Isaac Valencia
0 ...
7th. genera tion
Mordechay
Danie I
b. 1836 at C.
b . 1837 at C .
d. .. . at Coro
in. 1859 at C.
Deborah de M oises
de Abm. Jesurum
m ....
D· ··
Rafael
(Raymond)
b. 1839 at C.
d. 1889 at C.
m. 1863 et C.
Julie de
Moises Rois
Mendes
Jacob
~~
d .... at N.Y.?
m. ····· ·
M ozes
<'Mar~
b. 1846 at C.
d. 1889 at C.
m. 1872 at C.
Rosalinda
de Semah Val encl a
b. 1852 at C.
d. ± 1892 at
Panama
m.
···D···
Isaac
-----C.
Aron
Abraham
b. 1857 at
d. 1915 at C.
m. 1883 at C .
Rosa de
Elias Cur iel
b. 1897 at C.
d . 1905 at C.
m. 1873 at C.
Esther de Josuah
El las Jesuru m
Henriquez
::;:
~
~
~
Teb le X IV
Table XV
Table XVI
Tabl e XVII
8th. generation
I
Sarah
I
Rebecca
b. 1879 et C .
b. 1883 at C.
d . 1959 at C .
d ...... .
m. 1906 at C.
m . ...
Jacob d e
Herman C.
Henriques
(Branch extinguished)
D ···
l.>l
°'l
'\
)
TABLE XIII
7th. generation
BENJAMIN (Table VIII)
( de Mordechay)
,-
RAFAEL (Table VIII)
----- - - - Dav id
Cl ara
b . 1873 et C.
d . 1949 at New York
m. 1898 at Nanette
van Lier
b. 1867 at C.
d. 1925 et C.
m. 1890 at C.
David de Abm
D. Henriques
1
A bigael
b. 1869 at C.
d. 1946 at C.
m . ...
o ..
Rose
b. 1870 at C.
d. 1924 at C.
m.... 0 ...
Chay
Clara
b. 1872 at C .
d. 1873 et C .
m . ...
(child)
Mordechay
b. 1840 at C .
d. 1926 at C.
m. 1862 at C.
El las de Mozes
Curiel
n ...
b. 1838 at C.
d . 1893 et ...
m. ± 1863 et San
T homas
Esther Ellen Osorio
8th. generation
8th . generation
I
I
Benno
Rose
Eleanor
b. 1099 et C.
d.
m. 1°.... at ...
2°. et New York
Gladys Muscat
b . 1863 a t San
Thomas
d . 1944 at C .
b . 1865 at San
Thomes
b . 1866 at San
Thomas
m ....
o ...
m ....
0 ...
w
')
l
9th . generation
vJan
b.
-----
d.
m.. ... . .
Davi d (bext er)
b..... ..
d.
m. .... ..
TABLE X IV
8th. generation
MORDECHAY (Tabl e XII)
(Mu rray)
Rebecca
b. 1861 at C.
d.
m. 1084 at C.
Rodolfo de
My. Pinedo
Branch extingu ished
Esther
b . 1861 at C.
d .......
m .......
---Lea
b. 1864 at C.
d ...... .
m. 1887 at C.
Jos las Davi d
Pardo
l e surun
b. 1865 at C.
d . ......
m . ...
0 ...
Evelina
b. 1867 at C.
d .......
m. 1892 at C.
David de
Isaac Osor io
Henny
b. 1868 at C.
d .......
m ....
0 ...
Emma
b. 1869 at C.
d .......
m. 1890 Hen ry
d e Isaac Baiz
Eliza
b. 1871 at C.
d.
m....
0 ..
TABLE XV
8th. genera tion
RAFAEL (Table XII)
<Raymu ndo)
Abigael
Emma
Carmen
Rosa linda
b. 1882 at ...
d .... at ...
m. 1904 at Cor~
Enr ique de
Rafael Pinedo
b.
at
d . ± 1905
m. 1897 at Coro
M orris de Isaac
A. Senior
b.
at .. .
d. 1888 at
m. 1887 at Coro
Josi as Lopes
Senior
at .. .
b.
d. 1936 at ...
m. 1884 at Coro
El ias de
Ephrai m C uri el
Engracia
b . ... at ...
cl . 1923 at C.
m. 1884 at .. .
Salomon
Fonseca
Este la
b .... at ...
d . 1932 at .. .
rn.
0
l
\.>,)
00
Mauricio
b.
at .
d. 1894 at .. .
m.... 0 ...
Ernesto
b.
at
d. 1912 at .. .
m ....
0 ...
Jacobo
b. 1873 at C .
d . 1902 at
m . ... D
Alfredo
b.
at .. .
d. 1931 at
Managua
m.
[J
Horacio
b.
at .. .
d. 1936 at
m.
0
Sa r ita
I
l
b.
at
d. 1930 at
m. 1882 at ...
Josi as Lopes
Sen io r
Branch extinguished
I
TABLE XVI
6th . g enerati on
MOZ ES (M ARIUS) (Tab le XI I)
Rose
Manuel (M ichel )
b. 1873 at C .
d. . at C.
m . 1900 at C
Abm. de Josuah
de Jb. de Josuah
de Jb. de Sola
Judith (Jane)
b. 1876 at C.
d. 1948 at C.
m. 1899 Dr. Eduard
Eleazar de Dr.
Salomon Mozes
Lansberg
b. 1875 at C .
d. 1934 at Paris
m. 1983 at C .
Rosabel la de
Jb. Penso
Isaac (James)
b . 1879 at C.
d . 1954 at C.
r., . 1905 at
Antwerpen
Cami Ila de Jb.
Penso
Edgar
Dahlia
b. 1380 at C .
d. ± 1943 at?
m...
b. 1887 at C.
d.
at ...
m. 1905 at C.
Mo rris de Rafae l
de Moses C .
Henr iquez
0 ...
9th. ricnern tion
I
Herbert Marius
b. 1903 at Leiden
at ...
m . 1939 at Paris
Et iennette Tombeck
m . ...
0.
b. 1942 at A' dam
d.
at .. .
m ... at .. .
I
Anne Rosabelle
b. 1939 at A 'dam
d. ... at .. .
m .... at .. .
Monica
Geo rge
b. 1947 at
Sant iago
d . ... at .. .
m.... at . ..
TABLE XVI I
8th. generation
(Bol)
b. 1884 at C.
d .... at .. .
m....
0 .. .
b. 1909 at 1he Hague
d .. .. at .. .
m . ... at .. .
~l
B eatri ce Graco
b. 1911 at the Hague
d .... at ...
m. 1° . 1933 at C .
Ruben Senior
2° . ... at C.
J. Weber
3° .... at C .
J. Heukelom
w
'°l
b . 1940 at
Vas teros
d .... at .. .
rn .... at .. .
M ichael
I
Wi m
r
10th. (ICneratlon
I
b. 1907 at Amsterdam
d ... at ...
m. 1°. 1939 at St ockh o lm
Maj Wi den
2° 1946 In New York
Syb i l de J. M . L.
Maduro
b. 1905 at A.
d . 1906 at A.
cl.
Manue l
I
Jacob Consta nt M lchie l
Constant
Michel Ro land
b. 1948 at
Santiago
d .... at .. .
m .... at .. .
Jose Manuel
b. 1953 at
Sant iago
d .... at .. .
m .... ot .. .
ISAAC (Table XII)
C i lia
b . 1888 at C.
d. 1889 at C.
m....
o ...
Rome l ia
-----
b . 1886 at C.
d .... at
m . ... at ...
Elias
Ida
b. 1890 at C.
d. 1927 at
Barranqui lla
m . ...
o ...
b . 1891 at C.
d. 1912 at C.
m ....
D···
Z i llah
b. 1C92 at C.
d.... at ...
m. ... a t ...
G. Fabr icius
Edward
b . 1895 at C.
d .... at ...
m.... at ...
Morales
Otto
b. 1897 at C .
d. 1944 at C.
m .... at ...
Groen
Aurora
b. 1899 at C.
d.
m .... at ...
Oete lmons
Blanche
b. 1901 at C .
d .......
m.... a t ...
Octavio de
Dav id de Isaac
Valenc ia
Thelma
b. 1907 at C .
d.
m. 1930 a t C.
Benjami n de
Josias de Abm .
Mendes Chumac<? lro
-41-
PART II
THE NAME OF ALVARES CORREA OUTSIDE CURACAO
IN THE 16th, 17th AND 18th CENTURY
As observed at the outset of the work, the names of "Alvares" and "Correa",
taken separately are extremely common in Spain and Portugal. It was therefore somewhat a surprise to us to notice, when staying in Lisbon and perusing
the telephone directory, that no subscriber with the name of "Alvares Correa"
was listed. When reading historical works on the Portuguese discoveries, we
made the same observation. Portuguese and Spanish encyclopedias and
catalogues mention a great number of historical persons carrying the name
of Alvares or Correa, but very few named "Alvares Correa". The conjunction
of the two names seems therefore rare at any rate in Spain and Portugal.
The situation is perhaps different in Brazil, for reasons we w ill explain later.
It seemed for that reason worth while to make a note in the course of our
studies, each time we found an "Alvares Correa" even though apparently
unconnected w ith the Curacoa family. These notes may be useful in case of
future research in the family history.
The result is the following:
1. In 1735 married in Amsterdam.: Rachel Alvares Correa of Bayonne. 28
years of age, assisted by her mother Judith Lopes Dias, with Isaac Robles of
Amsterdam, widower of Rachel Roberts. (Mun. Arch. Amsterdam Puiboek
no. 721; page 33 verso). According to the corresponding inscr iption in the
marriage Register of the Port. Isr. Community, Rachel was a d aug hter of
Aron Alvares Corea; Isaac a son of Abraham Robles. ( Date of marriage: 15
Adar 5495).
We inquired about this Rachel in Bayonne but without result.
2. On Sept. 12th I 728 was circumcized at Amsterdam Jacob Alvares Correa.
The inscription in the Mohel- book of Ishac Curiel Abaz ( See Ets Haim
Library, Amsterdam no. 43) reads:
9 Tisry 5489
"Em domingo sirconsidey hum home Portugues de 22 Afios. Chamado
Joseph Alvares Correa y se pos por nome Jacob Alvares Correa".
This Jacob A lvares Correa, was certainly n ot the son of M anuel, because
Jacob de Manuel Alvares Correa of Curacoa had already died in 1714. He
may have been a son of Gabriel de Manuel, of Amsterdam. But, w hy, in that
case was he not circumsised at his birth in 1706?
3. In London we discovered an Abraham Alvares Correa, who was Parnas
in 5536 ( 1 775) and 5546 ( 1786). ( See A. M. H yamson, The Sephardim of
England p. 430/7).
Mr. Hyamson wrote us about him :
"Abraham Alvares Correa married Sara Alvares Correa on 15 Tamuz 5524
( 1764) . This was probably a remarriage, w ith Jewish rites, of refu gees
from Portugal, in view of the same surname for bride and bridegroom".
He further writes that in the following yea r Shebat 5525 his daughter Rachel
married Jacob Rodrigues Peynado. Rachel apparently died a few years later,
for on 13 Ellul 5539, her sister Ester married h er husband. More is not known
regarding this family .
-42-
4. In Livorno lived in 1637:
Josuah de Joseph Alveras Caria and
Jacob de Joseph Alveras Caria
(See Copia exacta extrado do Manuscrito D , 32 da Biblioteca de Leon
Cassuto do Porto (Portugal ) "Sem titulo e contendo os nomes e mais pormenores dos membros da Communidade Portuguesa ( Sefardi) d e Liv orno dos
anos 1612/1638 Letras A /F. Data de circa 1838 ).
5. In Lisbon exists a street called "Rua Alves Correia", apparently named
after a journalist w ho liv ed there in the 19th century .
6. In the Ency clopedia Universal Illustrada, edited b y Escasa Calpa s.a. of
Barcelona, we find Diogo Alvares Correa: Militar portugues de! Siglo XVII.
Servio en Flandres, Italia y Africa y es cribio una obra titulada: "lnstruc;;ao e
ordinanza da gesta da guerra", que dedico al Infante Duarte.
7. In the " Inventario, relative ao Brasil, existendo no A rchivo do Marinha y
U ltramar de Lisboa " b y Ed. de Castro y Almeida (1913) , is mentioned
Joao Alvares Correa, captain in Bahia in 1756.
8 . T he " Inventar io d o liv ros de ma t ricula dos moradores da Casa Rea l" Vol.
I 1641-1681 (Archivo. Nae. de Torre do Tombo, Lisbon) mentions Letters
P atent g iven to Luis Correia do Couto as follo ws: A lvara de moc;o d a camara,
com a moradia e ceveda ordinario e condicao d o n umero et d a India a Luis
Correia d o Couto, n atu ral de Azenha za , filho d i F r ancisco A lvar es Correa
a 3 de marc;o i 660.
9. T he "Gra nde Encyclopedia P or t uguesa e Brasileira" mentions Man uel
Alvares Correa, who accompanied Manuel Lobo, Governor of Rio de Jan eiro,
w hen the latter fo un ded the Sacra mento Colon y. He defended the colony in
July 1680 a g ainst t he Spanis h troops of D. A n tonio d e Vera Mujica.
l 0. An d fi n ally there existed t he well known D iogo Alva res Cor rea o f
Bahia.
Accord ing to tradition this Diogo was a nobleman from Vianna d o
Castello , a city situated N orth of P or to ( P o rtuga l ). Around 1510 he was
ship w recked on the coast of Brazil near t he location w here the p resent city o f
Bahia, a lso called San Sa lvad or, stands.
T he coast of Bra zil ha d previously, in 1500, been d iscovered by P edro Alva r es
C abral a nd t he first to anchor in the bay of Bahia was probably A merica
Vesp uccio. who as he arrived there on A ll Sa ints D ay nam ed it " Bahia d e
todos los Santos".
Diogo was the only member of the ship 's compan y, w ho did not perish in the
sto rm. A fter having struggled a shore, he luckily .succeeded in recov ering fro m
th e floa ting w reckage some fi re ar ms and ammunition, w hich p roved m ost
useful to him in his quest fo r d aily food a nd even saved his life, when hostile
na tive tribes, called "Tupinambas", startled by the sho ts he had fired,
surrounde d him and made him realise tha t he was not at all in the com fo r table
t houg h lonely position o f a Ro binson Crusoe, but in peril o f b eing eaten up by
the savages.
However, w hen t he na tives observ ed th e mira cle of Western civ ilis ation
w hich allows a man to kill a t a distance b y the simple dev ice of pointing a
barrel a t his victim , they d ropped their hostile attitude a nd d ecided . a fter
-13-
having made peace, to adopt him as their medicineman, calling him in their
dialect " Caramuru" which means "man of fire".
Diogo, who had no other choice, accepted the exalted position thus offered to
him with some anxiety, well knowing that w izards and kings are apt to be
killed w hen they do not liv e up to expectations. Wisely, therefore. he streng~
thened his rather unstable position by marrying the chieftain Guepav a 's beau~
tiful daughter, Paraguassu, who, according to the tale, was "desperately in
love" with him.
A few years later, a French ship under the command of Captain du Plessis
anchored in the bay of Bahia. Here was a chance to go back to Europe. But
Diogo did not go alone. As he had kept alive thanks to his marriage with
Paraguassu, he took her with him. The departure of the couple occasioned a
heartrendering incident. One of Diogo' s fai thful mistresses. called Moema.
w hen not permitted to a ccompany him to Europe, in despair swam .a fter the
leaving ship till she disappeared exhausted under the waves.
Paraguasu was of course the centre of curiosity when s he arrived in France,
for the French at that time had never seen an Indian. Soon the new s of the
couple's arrival reached the French Court. Diogo and his princess were
ordered to appear before their Majesties Henry II and Catherine de Medicis
and w hen Paraguass u was converted to the Catholic faith, the Q ueen stood as
her godmother at the baptismal font. As a token o f gratitude, Paraguassu took
the name of Catherine.
In the meantime, the Portuguese had strengthened their ho ld o n Brazil by
establishing a string of military settlements on its coast. Diogo therefore
decided to return to Bahia to settle there again w ith his wife.
H e had a vast offsp ring, both ligitimate a nd illigitimate and d ied the 5 th of
October 1557.
His w ife died after him a nd w a s buried in the lgreja da Gra<;a of the Convent
of San Bento, having lived, respected by all , a most pious and Christian life.
Her tombstone s till exists.
This is the s tory of D iogo a s tradition has it.
Diogo became in Brazil a legendary man. not only because of his str an ge
adventure, but a lso and foremost because he w as the fo under of the city
Ba hia . He gave the Brazilean nation a hero to be pround oL linking up by his
marriage the native past with the Portuguese present.
No wonder w hen in 178 1 a missonary Santa Rita Durao d ecided to glorify
Brazil in an epos, that was in his intention to became as famous a s Camoens'
Os Lusitados. which latter poem has described the feats of the Portuguese
n avigators, he chose Diogo Alvares Correa as his her o.
His book that dramatised in lengthy epic poetry the founding of Bahia drew,
of course, its inspiration more from imagination than from histor y, but it
became ver y popula r th roughout Brazil a nd Portugal because it was tradition
fixed in print. It was reedited five times. translated in french, adapted in
fre nch and portuguese w orks of popular fiction, and in P aris even an Opera
called "Paraguassu" was staged in the Theatre Lyrique in 1855 .
In Rio de Janeiro, w hen a statue dedicated to Brazil's P r esident Peixotto was
erected, our hero w as not forgo tten. O n e of the bearded allegorical figures at
the foot of this sta tute is n one other than Diogo Caramuru.
-11-
Romanticism flew high in the 19th century and therefore one is not astonished
to read in Mr. F. Denis, Le Bresil, regarding the fate of Moema, Diego's
mistress, the following accusing passage:
"Mais je ne saurais pardonner
a celui-ci
(Diogo), malgre ses grandes quali-
t.es. d'avoir cause la mort d'une infortunee qui le suivit
a la
nage avec ses
autres femmes, lorsqu'il partit pour !'Europe. Emportee par son amour, elle
se livre, selon quelques historiens, aux flots irrites de la mer; elle veut
suivre le batiment, d'ou son cruel epoux la supplie de s'eloigner. Le vent
scuffle avec plus de violence, la navire fend I' onde avec rapidite et Jes
£lots l' engloutissent en etouffant un cri de desespoir."
After these litterary excesses, it was clear that scientific historians had to step
in t@ reestablish the truth on the basis of documentary evidence.
The first to verify the story of Diogo was the eminent F. A. de Varnhagen,
Baron later Viscount of Porto Seguro. In his article "O Caramuru perante
a historia" written in 1848, he established the following facts:
I. Diogo came in Brazil around 1510.
This is proved by the following documents:
a) The logbook of Rodriguez da Cunha, which notes that on June 1st 1526,
his ship entered the Bay of Ba hia, w here he found a Christian w ho told him
that he had been shipwrecked there 15 years ago.
b) T he logbook of Pedro Lopez de Souza, who with his brother Martim
Alfonso ( their cousin T homas de Souza later became the first Portuguese
Governor of Brazil) anchored in Bahia Bay on March 13th 1531. He
mentions having met there "um homem portugues que ha via 22 annos que
estava nesta terr a".
c) The writings of the Spaniard Herrera w ho was shipwrecked on May
1st 1538 on the San Pedro at a distance 20 miles from Bahia and notes
regarding this event: "En la Bahia de los Santos hallaron un portuguez que
dixo que avia 25 annos que estaba antre los indios".
d) A letter addressed in 1549 to mestre Simion of Coimbra by Manuel de
Nobrega _who headed the first Jesuit mission sent to Brazil with Thomas de
Souza. This letter contains the following passage : "En esta capitania halle
un hobre de buenas partes antigo en la tierra y tenia <lode escrever la legua
de los indios, que fue pera mi grande consolacion".
Of course none of these documents mentions the name of the Portuguese
settler encountered, but it seems highly probably that the man was D iogo
Alv ares, beca u se it is stated in another doc ument:
"Nobrega ordenou com o bispo que fizesse com Diogo Alvares (por lingua
dos Indios Caramolu) o ho qua! tern grande credito os Indios por auer
corenta a sinquoenta aiios que anda antre elles e ser velho honrado ... ".
2. May be the ship on which Diogo was wrecked, was the caravel on which
Diogo de Garcia reached the Plate river, on his first voyage in 1511. (His
second voyage, started from La Corufia (Spain), took place on Jan. 15th
] 526) .
3. Nothing proves with certainty that Diogo came from Vianna, but he d id
come from the Northern tip of Portugal because in a letter of Pero Campo
Tourinho, dated July 28th 1546 he is called: "Diogo Alvares, o gallego, lingua,
-45-
que la (Bahia) era morador" 101). Strictly speaking a "gallego" is an
inhabitant of the province of Gallizia (Spain). But as Vianna de Castello is
situated on the border of this province, an inhabitant of Vianna, although
Portuguese, might loosely be called a "Gallego".
In the same article de Varnhagen lengthily explains why the voyage of Diogo
to France and the subsequent baptism of Paraguassu in the presence of Queen
Catharine de Medicis should be regarded as historical fiction. His line of
argument, as he himself admits, is largely negative. If such extraordinary
events had really taken place, he argues, french or portuguese contemporary
writers would have mentioned the couple.
Recently however a document was discovered - or better said "rediscovered"
- which proves that tradition was not so far off the mark after all. The
document in question was already known for many years to biographers of
the life of Jacques Cartier, the discoverer of Canada. A Mrs. Olga Obry,
putting two and two together, used it as evidence of Diego's voyage and his
w ife's baptism. The document (see Repr. 13) w hich exists in the Departemental
Archives of Ille and Villaine in Rennes ·( F ranee) reads as follows:
"Le penultime jour de moys, susdit (J uillet 1528) fut baptizee Katherine du
Brazil et fut Compere noble homme Guyon Jamyn, recteur de Sainct Jagu
et Commere Katherine des Granches et F ranczoize Le Gobien, fille de
l'aloue de Sainct Malo et fut baptizee par Messire Lancelot Ruffier, vicaire
du diet lieu, le diet jour que dessur. (Signe) J. Trublet."
The Katherine des Granches named in this certificate of baptism, is none
other than the wife of Jacques Cartier and Guyon Jamyn was the brother of
Olivier Jamyn, husband of Jacques Cartier's aunt, Thomaze Cartier.
Thus de Varnhagen was wrong in disbelieving tradition.
The document proves:
I) that Diogo and his wife were in France in 1528.
2) that the n a me of Catherine is not derived from Catherine de Medicis but
from Catherine, w ife of Jacques Cartier.
And maybe it gives us a lead to the question w ho was the Captain Du Plessis
quoted in the poem of Dura.a. As a matter of fact, one of the captains w ho
joined Cartier in his third voyage to Canada, was called Pierre du P lessis de
Savonniere. It is quite possible that before entering in the service of Cartier,
he commanded a ship which sailed to Bahia between 1526 ( date of da Cunha's
encounter w ith Diogo) and 1528 ( baptism of Paraguassu).
Other documents found since de Varnhagen wrote his "O Caramuru perante
a historia", reveal the following:
1) When Francisco Pereira Coutinho, son of Affonso Pereira Coutinho,
may or of the city of Santarem, arrived in Bahia as "Donatario", he granted to
Diogo on Dec. 20th 1536 "a gain" a "sesmario" (lot) of 400 "varas" (yards)
of coastline 107a ) .
2) When Thome de Souza was nomina ted Governor of Brazil, the king of
Portugal J oao III wrote a letter on Nov. 19th 1548 to " Diogo Alvares, cava10
leyro de sua casa " requesting him to assist Thome de Souza in his task s).
10,)
,,
p. 199.
1o7a) For text see Accioli p . 198.
108)
"
p . 259.
-46-
It is possible that the tradition of Diogo's noble descent stems from this letter,
although it may be pointed out that a "cavaleyro" in the time of Joao III was a
nobleman only if he was a "cavaleiro f idalgo", and not if he belonged to the
"cavaleiros simples" who were not nobles, but mounted soldiers.
3) On July 19th 1553 Diogo was still alive, as we find at that date a payment
order 109 ) in favor of "Diogo Alvares Caramuru, morador na Pova<;ao do
Pereira, termo des ta cidade (Bahia).
As to the death of Diogo we find in the book of Jabotao, Novo Orbe Serafico
brasileiro ( Lisbon 1761) 1 10) that Diogo was buried on Oct 5th 1557 in the
"Collegio des J esuitas".
He tells us having copied from an ancient deathregister of the Bahia cathedral
the following entry: "Aos sinquo dias do mes de outubro de 1557 falleceo
Diogo Alvares Correia, Caramuru, da Pova<;ao do Pereira; foi enterrado no
mosteiro de Jesus. Ficara por seo testamenteiro Joao de Figueiredo sea genro
- 0 Cura J oao Lourenc;;:o ( A fl. 70)"
This is the only precise mention we possess 111). Previous writers, like Soares
(1587), do Salvador (1627) who knew Paraguassu, Vasconcellos (1663) and
do Rocha Pitta (I 730) do not relate Diego's death. His tombstone has never
been found.
But the tombstone of his wife Paraguassu still exists. To it is attached a most
interesting historical development. This tombstone, which can at present be
seen in the "lgreja da Grac;;:a", carries the following inscription:
"Sepultura de D. Catharina Alvares Paraguassu Senhora que foi desta
Capitania de Bahia, a qua! ella e seu marido Diogo Alvares Correa, natural
de Vianna, derao aos Senhores Reis de Portugal. Edificou esta Capilia de
nossa Senhora de Gra<;a e a deu com as terras annexas ao Patriarcha S.
Bento em O anno de 1582" 112). ( See Reprod. 16.)
A coat of arms crowns the inscription. The precise date of the death of Para~
guassu is not mentioned, but Jabotao tells us in his Catalogo Genealogico it
was Jan. 26th 1583.
Now this tombstone seemingly proves, at one and the same stroke that Diogo
was in fact called Alvares Correa and not Alvares only, as all documents
available 'seem to prove, that he came from Vianna and, in view of the coat
of arms adorning the stone, that he was from noble descent, thus confirming
tradition as embodied in Durao's poem. According to reliable information
we received, however, the tombstone we see now is not the original. but one
placed in 1756 by Salvador Pires de Carvalho e Albuquerque, mayor of Bahia,
who thus wished to support his claim that he was a descendant in the 7th
degree from Diogo. The coat of arms on the new stone is in fact a combination
of the arms of four Portuguese • Brazilian families as follows:
For text see Accioli p. 201 and 337. When Tome de Souza founded Bahia or San Salvador up the hills, the old downtown city became known as V illa Vilha. Later on this
neighbourhood was called Pereira .
110) See Accioli p. 201 and 347.
111 ) This means that the date of Diogo's death, April 5th 1554 as given by the historian
V i:lhena is wrong.
112
) See Jabotao Part I Vol. I Digressam III Estancia IV p. 52 Ed. 1859, who wrongly and
incompletely cites this inscription. See also Acdoli p. 187.
100 )
--47-
R.eprod. 13.
Certificate of Baptism of Catherina Alvares Correa Paraguassu. 31 Juli 1528
R eprod. 14. The Dream of Paraguassu. This painting can be seen
in the church of the H oly Grace
in Bahia
-18-
Rep rod . I 6.
T o m bston e of Catherina A lvares Correa . Anno 1582
Carvalho j Cavalcanti
La Penha Deus Dara
I
Albuquerque
This leaves the riddle of Diogo' s ascendants unsolved as before.
But regarding Diogo's descendants we have ample information. Jabotao wrote
a " Catalogo genealogico" of -225 pages, which contains the names of some
300 families who for the greater part descend or pretend to descend from
Diogo 113). Diogo thus produced 114):
3
2
6
I
6
1
2
2
4
2
viscounts
barons
baronesses
marshal!
colonels
capta ins
" mestres de campo"
judges
religious fraternity members
priests
A ll these illustrious Brazilians descended from Diogo' s 4 legitimate daughters, 4 illegitimate sons and 5 illegitimate daughters.
D iogo had n o legitima te male offspring. This can account for the fact that
the family name Alvares Correa does not exist anymore in Bahia and it proves
that the Alvares Correa family of Curacoa does not descend from Diogo as
has often been thought. It is, h owever, quite possible tha t the family is
connected through common ancestors.
.. ..
113 )
114 )
.
Published in Rev. Inst. Hist. e Geogr. bras. Vol. 191 April/ June 1946.
Pedro C almon p. 156 note 110 in Inst. Hist. e Geogr. bras. Vol X: IV Congresso de
Historia National 21/8 April 1949.
-51-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Under this heading, we might, as is usually done, be satisfied by g1vmg an
enumeration of all books and documents examined in the course of our
research.
We prefer, however, to accompany our bibliography with some commentary.
because we think it will assist those who may w ish to dig further into the
family history than w e have been able to do.
Our genealogical inquiry started of course, in the Hague. In this city the Dutch
National Archives are kept, w hich comprise the Archives of the West India
Co. This company governed the island of Curacoa from 1621 till 1791. The
archives contain correspondance exchanged between the Curacoa Director
and his principals in Amsterdam, resolutions voted by the Curacoa
Council of the WIC and by the Amsterdam Board of Directors, judgments
passed and above all notarial deeds containing last wills, proxies, · marriage
deeds. inventories, transactions relative to real property a nd ships.
In general terms one may say, that nearly all documents regarding the first
WIC (1621 - 1674) have been lost.
The archives of the second WIC. ( 1674-1791 ) on the other hand have been
pretty well preser ved, though not completely: the n otariai d eeds begin as la te
as 1718; the list of births and deaths within the Portuguese Israelitic Community runs from I 723 to 1831 only. 115).
This mea ns that these Archiv es can give us very li ttle information regarding
Manuel A lvares Correa, who lived on the isla nd in an earlier period, from
1677 until! his death in 1717, but they do permit us to reconstitute a lmost
completely the fa mily tree in the 18th century.
T he same archives contain documents regarding the Dutch Territories on the
coa st of Brazil and Dutch Guyana (Surinam). In the manuscript section o f
the Royal Library at the Hague, there exists a collection of handwritten notes
made by the first Curacoa historian J. H. J. Hamelberg w hen writing his
excellent work "De Nederlanders op de West lndische eilanden". These
notes, which contain a valuable alphabetical index, do not shed any special
light on the family hi.story : a ll the notaria l deeds his index mentions wer e
already known to us.
A work of the same thoroughness was done by Mr. J. M . L. Maduro of
Curacoa, w ho w ent with minute care through a ll the archives of the WIC
noting in the course of his long s tudy all deeds and manuscripts containing
Sepha rdic names. His handwritten card -index which he generously allowed
us to consult, is of the utmost importance for those studying Curacoa genea logy. It would be worth while to print it and thus ensure its preservation.
Besides the book of Mr. Hamelberg, there exist other general w orks on
Curacoa which we perused. Although interesting in themselves, they were
little helpfull for the purpose we set ourselves.
Lately, however, a book was edited by Mr. I. S . Emmanuel, entitled "Precious
Stones of the Jews in Curacoa" , which giv es a vast amount of genealogical
informa tion. Mr. Emmanuel took the trouble to make a survey of all tombs
115 )
See M. A. P. Meilink Roelofsz. in W.I. Gids 35e jg. 1955: A survey of the archives .in
the Netherlan ds pertaining to the history of th e Netherland Antilles.
lying in the Old Portuguese Cemetry at Curacoa. He mapped them, photographed the most interesting examples, noted certain inscriptions which
attracted his attention, made a complete repertory and gave a commentary on
the most prominent Sephardic Jews buried there. His work, covering the
period 1656- 1957, has be-en of great value to us.
As the Hague archives gave us little information regarding the first Manuel.
we tried, knowing the relation existing in the 17th century between Curacoa
and Amsterdam, the archives of the Portuguese- Israelitic Community in that
city. These archives allowed us to ascertain that Manuel, his son Gabriel and
the children of the latter lived and married in Amsterdam. The discovery
prompted us to examine the cemetry registers of Ouderkerk near Amsterdam,
which showed us that Gabriel and his offspring all died in Amsterdam, and to
make a thorough research in the Municipal Archives of Amsterdam. Thus
we discovered that Manuel came from Livorno at the age of two years and
was left in the care of Guillermo da Silva. An enormous amount of work was
involved to come to this discovery, because- several hundred notarial deeds
between 1650 and 1677 had to be deciphered for the purpose.
The Amsterdam archives contain a handwritten cardindex made .before the
war by the genealogist and historian A . M. Vaz Diaz. This index gave us only
indications already known.
Once the knowledge was acquired tha t Manuel was born in Livorno in 1650,
we were prompted, when on holiday in Florence, to v isit the Sephardic Community in nearby Livorno. We found that their archives had come unscathed
throu gh the bombardment of the city during the second worldwar, but their
classified records begin as late as 1668 while all material before that date has
not been classified.
To peruse this scattered material during the few hours at our disposal. was
an impossible task which we must leave to our successors. It is q ui te possible
that the Livorno archives once completely indexed, w ill yield the secret of the
names of Manuel's parents and their relation w ith Portugal. General works
on Livorno were also consulted but without succes .
We a lso -had the occasion to v isit Curacoa, where we con sulted the religious
archives. These are not very old. It w ill be remembered that the present
synagogue was ina ugurated in 1730 in replacement of the one opened in 1692
and that the first Rabbi officia ted in 1671. The records presently existing start,
however , as late as 1795 with a Birth and Death r egister B. the r egister A
hav ing been lost. The Register of the Reformed Synagogue are of course
still younger, because this place of worship opened in 1865 only . The oldest
data available are therefore those furnished by the old cemetry, w hich contains
a tombstone of 1656.
Parallel to these researches, we tried to establish a tie between the Curacoa
family and their land of origin by digging in Portuguese and Brazilia n history.
For the moment this line of research has not proved fruitful. Especially no
relation could be establis hed w ith Diogo Alvares Correa who, coming from
V ianna do Castello (Portugal), was the first white settler in Bahia.
In this connection we visited in Lisbon the National Library and con sulted in
the Hague in the Dutch National Archives, the catalogues of the Archive
Naciona l do T orre de Tombo of Lisbon, as w ell as the catalogue of
Manuscripts kept by the Biblioteca do Rio de Janeiro. The perusal of this
material was disappointing. Neither did we find anything of interest for our
purpose in general works concerning the Marranos in Portugal and Spain, the
Inquisition, Heraldry or the Spanish and Portuguese conquests.
We consulted further more, after having found the trace of a certain Rachel
Alvares Correa of Bayonne who married in Amsterdam, general works on the
Portuguese in France, again without result. Neither did we succeed in Paris,
which is not surprising because no registers exist dating before the French
revolution. One should remember that only in the South of France (Bayonne,
Bordeaux, Carpentras) and in Alsace Lorraine ( Mulhouse) the public profession of the Jewish faith had been allowed in prerevolution days.
The Paris synagogues and cemetries are therefore all of the 19th and 20th
century, with the exception of two ancient and unofficial burial places in the
rue de Flandres in Paris and in the suburb of Montrouge.
Finally we read the book of Mr. A. M. Hyamson, the Sephardim of England
which cites an Abraham Alvares Correa, who was in 1775 and 1786 P arnas of
the London Community. Unhappily nothing is known about his ancestors a nd
little about his offspring.
All these negative results should not discourage our successors. As time goes
by, the material available in the Archives of Italy, Portugal and Spain, w ill no
doubt become more accessible to the genealogist. A t present the tracing of a
particular family through these archives, is like looking for a needle in a
haystack . Howev er, when historia ns, equipped with modern means, h ave
classified the documents subjected to their studies, they w ill have narrow ed
the field of research to a point where genealogists can on ce more step forward.
It will then be possible to take up the work where we left it.
With these explanations the following bibliography will no doubt be better
understood.
Curacao
Books
Joseph H. Coreas. A Synopsis of the Jews of Curacoa (Curacoa 1897).
J. H.J. H amelberg. De Nederlanders op de West lndische eilanden. Amsterdam 1901/1903. Vol. 1. De Benedenwindse eilanden (With Documents) until
1782.
Isaac S. Emmanuel. Precious Stones of the Jews of Curacoa 1656- 1957 (Bloch
Publishing Co. New York - 1957).
Gedenkboek Nederland - Curacao 1634-1934 (Amsterdam 1934)
C. P. Amelunxen, De geschiedenis van Curacao opnieuw verteld ( Curacoa
1929).
M. D. Teenstra. De Nederlandsche West lndische eilanden ( 1837).
G. G. van Paddenburg. Beschrijving van het eiland Curacao ( 18 19) .
P.A. Euwens, Cura<;ao in 1803 en 1804 (In Onze Eeuw VII en VIII)
. De lste Jood op Curacao (in West lndische Gids XIII 1930/1
p. 360)
, De Joodse Synagoge op Curacao (in West Indische Gids XVI
1933/4 p. 222)
S . Kalff. De Joden op Curacao (in West Indische Gids IX 1926/7 p. 69)
-54-
Dr. Os. A. J. C. Krafft, Historie en oude families van de Nederlandse Antillen
( 's-Gravenhage 1951 ) .
J. H. Hering , Beschrijving van het eiland Curacao (Amsterdam 1779).
Dr. Joh. H artog, Het verhaal der Maduros (Aruba 1962).
Dr. J. de Muller. Curacao in 1817 (Bydrage tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Ned. Indie 1913).
Prof. Dr. M. D. Ozinga. De monumenten van Curacao (1959).
Encyclopedie van N ed. W est In die ( 1911-19 I 7).
West Indische Gids 1919-1945 (1 st-26th year) .
American Jew. Hist. Society I p. 42. 44; II 96, 103; III 17, 19 IV 63; IX 149jl 50
X The Jews in Curacoa.
Jewish Encyclopedia ( 1903) IV p. 386/9.
Documents
In the national archives in the Hague:
I
I. Lijst van geboorten en overlijden der Portugese Joden te Curacao ( 1722-
1830) WIC deel. 1484.
2. Secretariele en Notariele protocollen (I 718-1828) in WIC Deel 794-1225;
1543-1568.
3. Resolutien, Sententien van Oirecteur en Raden
( 1720-1755) WIC Deel 1517/1529;
(1729-1756) WIC D eel 3-19.
4 Gerechtsrol. ( 1740/1) WIC Deel 20.
5. Notulen Kamer van Amsterdam 1674/5 WIC 330/201.
6. Brieven van Curacao aan de Kamer van Amsterdam ( 1700- 1702) met
register W.I.C. 566/387.
7. Gedrukt vertoog in de naam van Balthasar Beck ( 1683) WIC 970.
8. Brief Bewindvoerders en Oirecteur van Curacao 23 D ec. 1699 WIC 470.
II
In the Royal library the Hague:
H andwritten notes made by J. H. J. Hamelberg:
120B6 IX. Genealogische aantekeningen 1-272. A. H ypotheken B. Oiversen.
120B7 X C a. Not. protocollen 1721 - 1745, plakkaten, requesten, soldy boeken
(1-5012) ; b . Kerkelijke en burg. registers 18e en 19e eeuw (5013-5748);
1. Gereformeerde Gemeente;
2. Evang. Lutherse Gemeente.
120B8 XI A lphabetic Repertory C. 1-5748.
III In the archives Port. Isr. community Mikve Israel
1. Libras de Ketubah . 1782 till now-Vol. VI (first 5 volumes missing).
2. Libro de Legados.
3. Birth and death register A missing 116)
B 1795- 1865.
C 1865-1885.
4. Marriage Register (1912- 1956).
110)
In the Hague Nat. Archives exists a birth and death register 1722-1830 (WIC. no. 1484)
which is no doubt based on the lost register A .
-55-
5. Birth register 1885-1952.
6. Burial register 1887 - till now of New Cemetry 117).
IV In the archives of the "Commundad Neerlandesa lsraelitica Reformada'·.
Registro de Matrimonio ·1865 - now 118).
V In the Curacoa Goven1ment Archives.
1. Burgerregisters van Curacao vanaf 1831 ( 1O delen).
2. Registers van geborenen en ov erledenen en van huwelijk van de Burgerlijke stand op Curacao vanaf 183 1.
VI In the possession of Mr. S. A. L. Madum.
l. Memorias Curiel ( 49 pp) ( Memorias dos que forao electos en este Santo
K.K. de Mikve Israel por Parnassims, Gabay y Hatane Atora) Year 5342
(1672) - 5526 (1856). This is a list of Parnassim and Bridegrooms of
the law which had been copied from the herafter named Memorias Senior
by a son of Ephraim de Selomoh Curiel ( 1843) and others.
2. Memorias Senior (230 pp) covering the periods 1713-1763 and 1811-1815.
It lists Community Treasurers (Gabay) 1671 /2.
Pasnassim 1674/5.
Bridegrooms of the law (Hatane Atora) 1675 onwards and other
officials: Hakhanims (Rabbis), Rubissim (teachers) , H azzanim
(cantors).
II
Amsterdam
Books
Bloom H. I. The economic activities of the Jews of Amsterdam in the 17th and
18th century (1937).
Henriquez de Castro D. Keur van grafstenen op de Ned. Port. lsr. Begraafplaats te Ouderkerk aan de Amstel ( Leiden 1883).
Koenen H. J. Geschiedenis der Joden in Nederland ( 1843).
Dr. H. H. Brugmans en Ors. A. Frank. Geschiedenis der Joden in Nederland
( 1940). Deel I ( Deel II never published).
Mendos dos Remedios, Prof. Dr. J. Os Judeus Portugueses em Amsterdam
(1911) .
Prins I. Vestiging der Marranen in Noord-Nederland in de 16e eeuw ( 1927).
Dr. M. C. Paraira and J. S. da Silva Rosa, Gedenkschrift uitgegeven ter ge legenheid van het 300-jarig bestaan der onderwijsinrichtingen T a lmud Tora
en Ets Haim bij de Port. Isr. Gem. te Amsterdam . Amsterdam ( 19 16) .
Seeligman S. Bibliografie en Historie, Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis d er eerste
Sephardim in Amsterdam ( 1927).
Seelig man S. Uber die erste J udische Siedlung in Amsterdam ( Mitteilungen
zur Jiidische Volkskunde - Breslau 1906).
Silva Rosa J. da, Geschiedenis der Portugese Joden te Amsterdam (1925) .
Z warts Jae ., Hoofdstukken ui t de geschiedenis der Joden in Nederland ( 1929).
117)
The register of the Old Cemetry, which was replaced by the New Cemetry on Aug. 22nd
1880, got Jost.
H 8)
In 1865 a Syna gogue o f liberal tendancy was open ed on Curacao. The family did not
join this community but have married with some of its members.
-56-
Documents
I
Archives of the Port. Isr. Gemeente, Amsterdam:
Registro Geral e alphabetico dos libros de quetuboth do K.K. de T .T .
em Amsterdam, commencando desde 16 de Tebeth 5433 (1673).
II
Archives of Ets Haim, Amsterdam:
Mohel book of Ishac Curiel Abaz.
III
Archives of the Santa Companhia de Dotar Orphas, Amsterdam:
1. Members book.
2. T ermos book ( book of donations) .
VI
Archives of the Ouderkerk~Cemetry:
Register of burials ( 1680 - present times).
V
National Archives, Haarlem:
Contra-boek van de Joodsche dooden.
Deel I
1729-1737
II 1740-1 759
III 1760-1 805
VI
Municipal Archives, Amsterdam:
1. Puyboeken 1581 - 1795 Containing marriages of Jews, Remonstrants,
Lutherans, Baptists and Roman Catholics concluded in the town hall
of Amsterdam ( consulted 1627-1656) .
2. Protestant marriage register ( 1578-1811 ) ( not consulted).
3. Quytscheldingen ( 1563-18 11 ), containing real property deeds with
repertory ( consulted 1732-1755).
4. Birthregister of Port. lsr. Community ( 1736-1811); consulted 17361750.
5. Burial register of Port. Isr. Community ( April 1750-J uly 181 I ) ; consulted 1750-1777.
6. Repertory of Weesmeesters: C = 10.9.1648-8.2.1662 (completely
consulted); D = missing; E = 11.6. 1661-28.11.1680 ( consulted letter
M).
VII Notarial deeds:
The following were notaries with many Portuguese clients:
B. Baddel 1630-1638 No repertory (not consulted ) .
Thieleman I 644-1667 No repertory: pages not numbered (not consulted).
A. Lock 164 7- 1680 Repertory 1647-1657 (consulted).
P. Padthuysen 1656- 1676 Repertory 1656-1666 ( Repertory and all d eeds
consulted); 1676- 1685 no deeds; 1685-1707.
Lavello, seccessor to Baddel. 1638- 1680. Repertory 1648- 1680 ( consulted
1659-1669 Spanish protocols).
D. v. d. Groe 1670-1718 w ith repertory ( consulted 1670- 1690).
Schabalje 1690-1728 no repertory ( n ot consulted).
G . v. d. Groe 1695-1725 w ith repertory (not consulted) .
G. v. Aghtshoven 1699-1 725 w ith repertory (not consulted).
VIII A. M. Vaz Dias, Notes notarial deeds 17th a nd 18th century.
Cardindex marriages.
,..,
-57-
III
Livorno
Books
E. Jona. Alcune Notizie sulle communione e sulla vita degli ebrei in Livorno
dalla fine de! secolo XV,I al principio del secolo XVIII tratte da documenti
inediti in Antologia Ebraica I, Leghorn 1901 p . 10/ 14 and p. 53/57.
C. Roth, Marranos in Livorno (Revue des Etudes juives 88-90 1931 p. 1-27).
Vivoli, Annali de Livorno.
IV
Bayonne
Books
Aveille M. H. L'lntendant d'Elygny et !es Juifs de Bayonne.
Leon H. Les Juifs de Bayonne.
V
Brazil
Historical books
Soares de Souza (Gabriel) 119), Tratado descriptivo do Brazil em 1587 (coll
Brasiliana. San Paulo).
Salvador (Frei Vicente Rodriguez Palha do) 120) , Historia do Brazil (1627)
( Ed Rio de Janeiro 1889).
Vasconcellos. ( Padre Simao de) 121 ) , C hronica da Companhia de Jesus. (1st
ed. 1663; 2nd ed. Lisbon 1865 and Rio 1864-1867). Vol. I (The second
volume was never w ritten).
Rocha P itta ( Sebastiao da) 122), Historia da America Portuguesa ( Lisbon
1724 Re-edited 1950).
Jabotao (Frei Antonio Sta Maria) 123) , Novo Orbe Serafico Brazileiro. Vol. I
Lisbon 1761. Vol, II Rio de Janeiro 1858.
Idem Catalogo genealogico 124 ).
Southy (Robert) History of Brazil. 3 vol. London 1810- 1819.
Mello Moraes ( A. J.). Brazil historico 4 vol. ( Rio 1839).
idem, Chorografia historica, chorographica, genealogica. n obilaria et politica
do Brazil. 5 Vol. Rio 1858-1863).
Accioli (I) 125) Memorias historicas e Politicas da Bahia Vol. I 1st ed. Bahia
1835 ; 2nd ed. Bahia 19 19 Notes of Dr. Braz do Amaral.
Varnhagen 1 26 ) F. A. de, Baron later Viscount de Porto Seguro. Historia
Geraldo Brazil 2 Vol. I st ed. 1854/7; 4th ed. 1948-1952 5 Vol; 6th ed. 1956.
Vol I.
idem O Caramuru perante a his toria (in Revista do Inst. hist. e geogr. bras.
Vol X 1848).
119)
120)
1
1.2 )
=)
123)
Lived from 1540~ 1591
The author was born in Bahia in 1564 and claims to have known Paraguassu, but calls
her erroneously Luisa Alvares. do Salvador died around 1636.
Lived from 1596-1671.
1660- 1738.
1695- 1763 or 1765.
Printed in Rev. Ind. hist. e geogr. bras. Vol. 191 April/June 1946.
Lived from 1808- 1865.
~26)
1816- 1878.
l.'. l4)
5
1!! )
Candido Mendes, Caramuru ( In Rev. do Inst. Hist. e geogr. Vol XXXIX
1876).
Calmon (Pedro) , Caramuru e seu episodio. (In "Annaes de IV Congresso de
Historia national. Rio 1949 Vol. IV p. 79-106).
idem, Historia da fundai;ao da Bahia ( Salv ador ] 949 258 p. ).
Silva (Prof. Dr. A.). Catharina Paraguassu perante a Jenda ea Historia (IV
Congresso de Historia Nacional Rio 1949 Vol. X p. 107).
idem, A. Sesmaria e a residencia de D iogo Alvares Caramuru (Annaes do lo
Congresso de Historia da Bahia 1949 Vol. I p. 155/169).
Boccanera Jr. (Silv io), Bahia Epigraphica e iconographica p. 3 15/7.
Catalogue de !'Exposition " France et Bresil" ( Paris J955).
Sampaia Th. , Proposito do nome " Caramuru".
Rev. Inst. hist. geogr. de Sao Paulo Vol. II 189617 p. 11 /26.
idem, Historia da Fundacao da Cidade do Salvador. (Bahia 1949; 296 p . ).
Litterary works:
Durao ( Fr Jose de Santa Rita) 0 Caramuru. I st ed. Lisbon 1781 : 2nd ed.
Lisbon 1836; 3rd ed. Bahia 1837; 4th ed. Lisbon 1845 under the title "Epicos Brasileiros" by F. A. de Varnhagen; 5th ed . Rio de Janeiro/Paris 1913.
Montglave ( Eugene Garay de) 0 Caramuru. ( T ransla tion in French) 3 Vol
in - 120 Paris 1829; 2nd edition Paris 1845.
Ba rros (Joao de) 0 Caramuru. (Adaptation) Lisbon 1935.
Roc;;a ( Simplicio da) Historia do celebre Caram uru ( Rio 1832).
Cervantes (Alejandro Majarinos) Caramuru (Montevideo 1848 ).
Denis (Ferdinand) Une fete brasilienne celebree a Rouen (Paris 1850).
O .Kelly and J. V illeneuv e, Paraguassu. Poeme lyrique en trois actes (staged
in the Theatre Lyrique in Paris on Aug. 2nd 1855).
Landelle (G. de) L'Homme de feu (Paris 1862).
Davila (Arturo Lobo) Os Caramurus (Lisbon 1900).
Obry (Olga) Catherine du Bresil (Paris 1953) .
-59-
THE JEWISH CALENDER
The Jewish calender is dated from the Creation which is supposed to have
taken place in the year 3761 b. Chr. It is originally a moon calender, which
means that the Jewish month begins with each New Moon. As the moon
cycle is 29Yz days long, the Jewish month has a length of 29 or 30 days. In
order however to keep up with the solar cycle, the month of Hesvan has
sometimes one day more, the month of Kislev one day less and once every 19
years an extra month "Veader" of 29 days is introduced. The Jewish New
Year, Rosh Hashona, 1 Tichri) thus falls between Sept. 5th and Oct. 5th of
each year.
In 1959 and 1960 the calender was as follows:
1-30 Tichri 5720
3 Oct-I Nov.
1959 (difference 3761 years)
1-30 Hesvan
2 Nov.~1 Dec.
2 Dec.-31 Dec.
1~30 Kislev
1 Jan.-29 Jan.
1960 ( difference 3760 years)
1-29 Tebet
= 30 Jan.-28 Feb.
1-30 Chevat
= 29 Feb.~28 March
1~29 Adar
= 29 Mrt.-27 April
1~30 Nissan
= 28 Apr.-26 May
1-29 ljar
= 27 May-25 June
1-30 Sivan
1~29 Tamuz
= 26 June-24 July
= 25 July-23 Aug.
1-30 Ab
24 Aug.-21 Sept.
1- 29 Elul
=
=
-60-
CONTENTS
page
I ntrnduction
Part I
Part II
The family Alvares Correa of Curacoa
Chapter I Manuel Alvares Correa
Chapter II The second Generation
Chapter III The branch of Raphael
Genealogical Tables
The name of Alvares Correa outside
Curacoa in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries
Diogo Alvares Correa of Bahia
1
3
20
29
30-39
41
42
Bibliography
51
The Jewish Calender
59
Reproductions
Repr. 1. Birth certificate of Manuel Alvares Correa
born 1650 at Livorno
Repr. 2. Power of attorney of the heirs of Manuel Alvares Correa
( 1719)
Repr. 3. Tombstone of Manuel Alvares Correa (1719)
Repr. 4. Tombstone of Sara Abendana, first wife of Manuel Alvares
Correa ( 1689)
Repr. 5. Kuiperstraat 27, Curacoa. The house o f Manuel?
Repr. 6. The old Cemetry, Otrabanda, Curacoa
Repr. 7. Tombstone of Abigael de Manuel Alvares Correa (1962)
Repr. 8. Tombstone of Abraham de Manuel Alvares Correa ( 1761)
Repr. 9. Tombstone of Ester de Abraham Alvares Correa ( 1747)
Repr. 10. Tombstones of Mordechay de Manuel Alvares Correa and
his first wife Sara de Crasto
Repr. 11. Tombstone of Mordechay de Manuel Alvares Correa
( 1750)
R epr. 12. Tombstone of Jacob de Manuel Alvares Correa {1714)
Repr. 13. Certificate of Baptism of Catherina Alvares Correa ( 1528)
Repr. 14. The Dream of Paraguassu
Repr. 15. The Church of the Holy Grace, where Paraguassu is buried
Repr. 16. The Tombstone of Catharina Alvares Paraguassa, w ife of
Diogo Alv ares Correa
5
15
21
21
22
22
22
22a
22a
22a
22b
22b
47
47
47
18